


Hitch & Call

by J_Flattermann



Category: Appaloosa - All Media Types, Comanche Moon (TV)
Genre: '', M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-19
Updated: 2014-01-19
Packaged: 2018-01-09 06:56:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 26,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1142881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_Flattermann/pseuds/J_Flattermann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Everett Hitch stumbles upon the Texas Ranger boys from Austin.</p>
          </blockquote>





	1. Chance Meeting on the Plains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everett Hitch stumbles upon the Texas Ranger boys from Austin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the mentioned events relate to the movie/book "Dead Man's Walk" by Larry McMurty.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1423

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurty estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.  
A/N: The timeline of this story is shortly before the End of “Comanche Moon” and two decades before “Appaloosa”.

 

 

 

 

  


_Everett Hitch – July 1864 Somewhere near the New Mexican/Texan border_

 

I came out of my nightmare wet from sweat and heavily panting. In my dream I had been back on the battle field again. Virgil had been at my side to start with. But in the smoke of canons and rifles I lost him. Something hit me and I fell to ground. I thought I was hit, dying even.

The nightmare was not an unusual one. I was reliving the battle I had fought in. The battle or rather the war I was running from.

 

I had been a soldier in the Union army. Of course that was no longer visible. For I had ridden myself of the uniform.

Of the battle I remembered not much. I couldn't even say how long I had been lying there between the dead, unconscious. When I awoke I was alone amongst the dead and my corp was gone. So were the Confederates. I remember getting up and staggering through a field strewn with bodies. Bodies of men, boys and horses.

 

I started walking and somehow couldn't stop. The sun had been setting and I had walked towards her. Walked towards her until she was gone. I had expected to run into troops but there hadn't been any. The night I huddled up in my army coat. I had no food, no water and no hope. I had walked up to a small forest and fell asleep leaning at a tree trunk. I'd lost my rifle but still had my pistol on me. However I wasn't sure if there was the enemy still near so I didn't dared to shoot.

 

That had been three month ago and I had kept walking westward. Somewhere I don't know where I found an overturned wagon. Two men dead, I took the civilian clothes of the one who was almost my size and buried him in mine. Buried them both.

They had been attacked by indians, so I had to be on the look out not to come to the same end.

In the wagon I found some food and the eight-gauge with some ammunition.

 

Having come that far I decided to try to cross over to Mexico and out wait the war. I managed to hunt a little which kept me from starving. Three days ago I found a riderless horse. I managed to lure it. So now I have a mount.

From tomorrow on I will turn Southwest and so God is still on my side I shall cross the border to Mexico.

 

Can't go back to sleep. Fear the nightmare will return. Have spotted some lights further ahead. Campfires possibly. Will go and have a look.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow F. Call – July 1864 near Fort Chadbourne, West Texas_

 

Had been out on patrol to the New Mexican border. Dealt with some minor incidents between drunken Railway workers. The horse thieves we were after remain illusive.

Gus and the boys are complaining. We turning back home tomorrow.

 

Gus has pestered me again with his lamentation over Miss Clara. Sounded as if he'd blame me. Told him to get lost. “I didn't tell you to whore around with that Inez Scull woman, did I?” I said. That shut him up for a while. Now he's at me again regarding Maggie. Says that child she'd born is mine. “How can you be so sure? She's a whore after all.” I said. Wished he would leave me in peace.

Ain't no good reading when you're talked to all the time.

 

Will roll up and sleep. Gus will wake me when it's my turn on watch.

 

 

Gus is shaken me and shushing. Has heard something. Thinks there is someone out there. Told him to gather the boys about the fire for a diversion. I shall crawl out and see if I can sneak up on whoever it is.

 

For split second I wished we had that darn indian with us. However the fellow had never been very good at sneaking up on anybody. Couldn't be helped anyway, Famous Shoes isn't with us.

I saw a hunched figure crouching between the thorny bushes. Cocked my gun as silent as possible and poked him.

 

Told him to drop his weapons and march forward into the clearing and to our fire. On the way picked up his gun. Pistol he held high over his head.

 

The boys looked shocked. Buggers are good for nothing. Can't even proper keep watch. Gus came over taking the colt from the fella. I sent Pea Eye to get the guy’s mount and surely he came back with the horse soon enough.

 

I had thought to find a indian spying on us but by the light of the fire it became clear that this was a white man.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

I crawled up to the fire using the surrounding shrubs as a cover. There were several armed men around. They were white but I thought it better to find out more first. I moved in closer to see if I could catch what they were saying when I felt the nozzle of a gun pressing against my back.

 

I was told to drop my weapons, encouraged by a nudge with the nozzle between my shoulder blades. I dropped the eight-gauge to the ground. It made a soft thud as it hit the dirt. I slowly moved my hands over my head my colt dangling from the middle finger of my right hand.

 

I was shoved and ordered to move on and to step into the clearing, closer to the fire. When I entered the clearing I heard gasps of surprise from some of the men. Young boys actually. There were only three grown men in the company I saw. A black and two white. From the force of the guy behind my back I gathered that he might be the fourth grown up.

 

The older of two whites in front of me was ordered to fetch my horse and soon enough he came back leading it to theirs.

 

The man who had captured me had called him Pea Eyes and on closer inspection I found that he indeed had very small eyes and some sort of a lazy eye as well. When he came back he called out calling my capturer Captain Call.

 

Damn it. But those men couldn't possibly be of a regular army. None of them wore a uniform. I decided to be very careful about what to give away.

The black called Deets was ordered to bring me some coffee and something to eat. I was made to sit down by the fire. Still I hadn't a chance to look at my capturer. But now he stepped into the light of the fire. He was very tall and slim with dark hair and a beard. He appeared to be fairly young for being addressed as a Captain.

 

The younger white seemed to be in charge as well as the two conferred what to do with me. Captain Call who had brought me in was bombarded with questions and the guy he addressed as Gus made it hard for him to cut in a word or two.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

Gus and I were discussing the situation. We had planned to ride back to Austin but I wasn't so sure if we should with the stranger in our midst. But Gus insisted. He suggested that the governor should take a look at the fellow.

As usual he was drowning me in words.

 

“We are small numbers, Gus. Look at them. They are boys.”

 

“And that is why we have to go home, Woodrow. We are all tired. The horses too. Best we make it back home now before we get trapped in bad weather and get lost. Remember we don't have a scout with us this time.”

 

“Hmm. Scared boys. And now we have a prisoner to guard. All the way back to Austin.”

 

“He doesn't look so dangerous to me, Call. Let's find out who he is first. It might turn out all right. And look at those boys, Call. They are relying on us. We need to take them home.”

 

“So what if he is dangerous? Cut our throats while we sleep?”

 

“Damn it, Woodrow. Do you always have to make things difficult.”

 

I left the interrogation of the fellow to Gus. He's yapping all day long. So for once this might be useful.

  
  
  


 


	2. Chance Meeting on the Plains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everett is taking captive and to be brought to Austin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to change the name of the Fort from Concho to Chadbourne after studying the map of Texas of that time.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 2  (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1316

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurty estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.  
 _A/N: Had to change the name of the Fort from Concho to Chadbourne after studying the map of Texas of that time._

[Previous](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/176900.html)

 

 

  
_Everett_

 

I tried to finish my coffee and the plate with beans when this guy Gus walked over and sat next to me. His bum hadn't found the log that served as a bench when he started talking. “Howdy. I'm Augustus McCrae, Captain of the Texas Rangers. Gus for short. We were horse thieves hunting. Now on our way back to Austin. Didn't expect to find somebody out here, all alone.”

Behind our backs came a growl and the tall one snarl. “Jeez, Gus, give it a break. We want to know who he is and not listen to your sorry life's story.” The rest of the rangers started to giggle, obviously well accustomed to this kind of banter.

 

Gus jumped up and yelled back. “Damn it, Woodrow. It's only polite to introduce oneself. Especially when one is planning to put a lot of questions forward. But how should you know anyway. You have no idea what politeness means.” Gus sat down next to me again after having finished with his fit.

“That one is Captain Woodrow F. Call. We both running this charge.” I gave the tall one a nod when his name was mentioned. “Everett Hitch. That's me.”

 

“Hey, your coming from Arkansas. I know the tongue. I'm from Tennessee myself. Woodrow is a full-blooded Texan. You've come a long way from home, Mr. Hitch.” Again I nodded, no need to deny when my dialect was given me away. “Everett will do.” I said and Call snorted and raised an eyebrow. Walking away he threw another glance at Gus and myself.

 

“You can well stop making noises, Woodrow. Isn't that your watch?” Gus called. “Why should I watch. You'll keep us all awake with your yapping. No need to standing watch, when you can be heard for miles.” The ranger boys chuckled again but got up and withdrew to their sleeping rolls.

“WELL. We hardly agree on anything Woodrow and I.” Gus said scratched his head his stetson in hand. “But he's all right. We need some sleep. Why don't you roll up over there, Everett. And we talk in the morning.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

Seemed like our catch hadn't proper eaten in a long while the way he wolfed down the plate with beans and the bread Deets offered. Meanwhile Gus had one of his talking conundrums. Wouldn't stop. Talked more about himself than getting any information out of our prisoner.

 

When the man opened his mouth one could hear the accent and Gus had him down as from Arkansas. Worried me a bit. Arkansas was fighting on the side of the Union. Now Texas tried to keep out of that Civil War business especially here in West Texas it was rather the usual problems with them Comanches. But if our prisoner was from Arkansas then it meant that he was a deserter.

 

There were fights on Texan ground in the East but that had little to do with us. I had heard of them battles and most of them the Union had lost. Now if that man who gave his name as Everett Hitch had been deserted then we might run into troubles.

 

Only the governor could make the decision what was to happen with the man. So at least in that respect Augustus had been right. We had to take him with us to Austin.

 

Hitch had nodded a greeting when Gus introduced us but I was not happy. Noises carry at night on the Stakes and Gus has a very loud voice at times. So I told him to shut it.

Finally the boys, Gus and the stranger rolled themselves up to get some sleep.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

Some noises, whispered words had me awake with a start. Took me a while to figure where I was. But then I remembered.

 

Scanned the camp. Pea Eyes was on watch and just now in conversation with Deets, the black. On the other side of the camp I saw the light coloured hat of Gus and next to him the odd shaped black hat Call had pulled into his face. I began to wonder what had brought these so different men together. Despite their constant arguing there seemed to be a close bond of friendship. I came out of my musings with Call staring back right in my face.

 

He got up and rubbed his face with a handful of dust. Water was sparse and only used for drinking and cooking. So I got up too and followed his lead, wiping my face with my bandana to get rid of the remaining sand in the crevasses of my face. Combed my hair with the ten fingers of my hands.

 

Deets had some coffee on the fire and a pan as well. Some morsels of partridge mixed in with the bacon and beans. Within the next few minutes everybody was up and about stuffing their faces with food and coffee.

 

I had my coffee still sitting next to me. Cleaning up the plate first when the commando to mount was given by Captain Call. I took a few sips of the coffee handed my plate to Deets and with another swig on the coffee poured out the rest for the cup to go back into the provision pack.

“Now, I call that wasteful.” A voice boomed over my head and I felt the blood raising up to my face. Deets patted my arm. “You will get used to him.” He said with a smile and pointed his thumb at the Captain who rightened his dark hat on his head.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

I woke to the feeling that I was watched. I removed my hat and lifted myself up. And indeed the stranger was staring at me. But it was a strange stare as if he was looking without seeing. I looked back at him and he startled coming out of his thoughts.

 

Grabbing a handful of dust I rubbed my face with it and then wiped it clean with my scarf. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw him do the same. Gus and I walked a bit further to have a private conversation on how to proceed from here.

 

“Which direction should we take?” I asked. He chewed on his tobacco and then spit. “Come on Gus, say something. Don't get all dried up on me again.” He pointed in South. “Over there somewhere is Fort Chadbourne.” I nodded. “Let's make it that way until we hit the Colorado river.”

“Following the Colorado down to Austin. Just my thinking, Gus. Just my thinking.” Gus kicked a pebble with his boot tip. “What are we doing with the stranger? Do you want him bound?”

 

I hadn't thought of that. I rubbed my palm against my jaw. My beard made a scratchy noise in the process. “Well.” I looked back at Gus. “He's not much of a danger, I reckon.” “And we might need another shooter if we meet with the Comanche, Call. But that mount of his isn't a proper horse, Call. Rather a mule. What do you think, we could give him Peewee's horse and stuff. The guy is not well equipped for riding out here.”

 

That was true. Guy hadn't a proper raincoat even. “OK, Captain McCrae, you’re looking into that.”

“All right, Captain Call. I will talk to him.”

 

We made ready and the stranger seemed to be caught by surprise of the swiftness of our making ready. I was just about to mount up when I saw him spilling away half of the coffee still in his cup.

I told him off. He has to learn that water is a rare commodity. We can't allow ourselves to be wasteful.  
  
  
  



	3. Bad weather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Travelling along the Colorado River the group is hit by bad weather.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 3   (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1018

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

 

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

I was just about to fetch my mount when Captain McCrae, Gus, came to me leading a horse by her reins. “Everett, you can't possibly ride on that old mule of yours.” He said handing me the reins. “That was Peewee's horse until he stirred up a rattler and fell off breaking his neck”

I looked at him and then at the little chestnut mare. She was a beauty with black stockings. Meanwhile Gus rambled on like I should check if some of the clothes in the pack were fitting and put on the cloak and so on.

All the while I checked the legs and shoes of the mare but they were all in good order.

 

I could feel Call's eyes on me and looked up. Indeed he sat up in his saddle, fingers twitching impatiently. So I hurried to pull out the cloak from the saddle bag and added the few bits of my belongings to it. Gus was still explaining the demise of young Peewee when he was rudely interrupted by Call. Whilst marching off and mounting his own horse Gus fired a salve of abuses in Call's direction. Much to the overall enjoyment of the rest of the gang.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

Gus is clearly happy about the addition to our company.

Now he's found someone to bend the ear. Dishing up all the old stories each one of us regulars have heard for about a million times. At the same time this means he will be yapping all day – not that he wouldn't have done that anyway. But this might slow us down.

 

“Come now, Gus. We're burning daylight.” I told him just to receive a volley of his usual slander.

I wanted us on the move. Looking at the skies in the South doesn't make me feel comfortable at all. Gus saw my notion and turned to look and paled. The clouds over there have a mean tint and if we're caught in a thunderstorm on the plains one never knows what's to happen.

 

By midday that bank of clouds had almost caught up with us and we had to dismount and walk, fighting our way against heavy winds. The light was waning by the minute and just when we reached the ridge above the Colorado river, hell broke free.

 

Thunderclaps and lighting flashes made the horses skittish and we had to hold them short. Everett's little mare proved worst but he showed some horsemanship. He bound his scarf over her eyes. Speaking to her softly he managed to calm her down enough.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

The weather took a turn for the worse as soon as we hit the Colorado. High winds and a lighting storm was slowing us down and causing the horses to get nervous. Especially my little chestnut was getting very unsteady and I was glad when Captain Call ordered us to dismount. I had to blindfold her to calm her down. The lighting flashes clearly scaring the wits out of her. The black man Deets spotted several caves in the rock face below us near the riverbed. But there was no way of reaching them without the horses breaking their legs and us breaking our necks.

 

Call made it clear that going down into the riverbed was not an option. “Out of question,” he shouted back at Deets over the winds, “we all would be washed away as soon as the river swells. And it will swell as soon as the rain starts. We'll be washed away and drown or have our heads knock open.” Was his fatalistic approach which initially made Gus roll his eyes at him.

 

However Captain Call was right and soon we were drenched in torrential rainfall which reduced the already poor visibility even further. We followed the river down stream all along the ledge of the ridge. Gus had one of his fits again and Call in no mood to listen ordered him to secure the rear to make sure we weren't leaving anybody behind.

With gritted teeth Gus did as asked for the request was only logical. Especially with the group of young and inexperienced deputies.

 

Captain Call was ahead of me in the lead. I followed right behind. Then there was a gap between me and Stove Jones, one of the young deputies. Stove struggled with his horse and had stopped to blindfold it following what I had done with my mount.

I turned around to see that the gap didn't grew to large when I heard a low rumble and suddenly the ground underneath my feet seemed to fall away.

 

 

* * *

 

_Woodrow_

  
Deets called out that he had spotted some caves near the bottom of the ridge. When the boys claimed that they wanted to take shelter there I advised against. The rain I had predicted hit us hard and soon engulfed us entirely.

The downpour slowed us down dangerously and far and wide there was no reasonable shelter against the onslaught of weather we were facing.

 

I had to press on to get the men into a place were we could set up tents and out wait the worst of the weather. Not to loose our way I staid close to the river especially as the visibility was declining swiftly.

 

I saw Hitch turning and noticed that there had been forming a gap between him and Stove. Stove struggling with his horse trying to tie his scarf around his eyes. We needed to press on and so I turned to trying to shout Hitch that he should call the others to catch up.

But my horse shied when a lightning struck close by. So I tried to steady him when with a great rumble the edge of the ridge crumbled away and broke under my feet.

 

I fell and so did my horse with the crumbling ground. With horror I noticed that Hitch and his mare too fell into the gorge.

I heard my horse scream out in pain before I hit the ground and got knocked unconscious.

 


	4. The Accident

**[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 4** (crossposted to meduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1062

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

I heard Call's horse screaming out in pain as he hit the ground with a crunch. Didn't sounded too good. Heard Call moan then silence apart from the horse making horrible ruckus.

I was lucky landing on a sandy spot on the riverbank. Rolled immediately away to escape from the rocks tumbling down. Stumbled to my feet watched as my horse got up and shook the fall off. She walked slowly towards me and I reached out rubbing her nose. She was fine. We both had been lucky. So much couldn't be said for the Captain and his mount. I turned towards the place Call had landed when shouts from above distracted me.

 

Gus lying flat on his belly poked his face over the edge. “Woodrow! Woodrow!” He called clearly worried. I looked up. My muscles in the neck hurting in the process. I walked over to Call but he was just coming around. “He's OK.” I shouted back at Gus.

 

Call wanted to get up but seeing the gash in his head I urged him to stay seated for the moment. His horse was still screaming in agony and I could see his worry. So I stepped to the animal but it was clear that his back was broken. I looked back at Call and shook my head to let him know that there was nothing left to be done but kill the poor beast. I drew my pistol but Call said “NO!” and handed me his knife.

“We don't want to invite the indians.” He said. So I rammed the knife into the forehead of the horse and then just to make sure cut his throat too.

I took the saddle, bags and brittle off. Rummaging through Call's saddlebags. I found something to wrap around his head to stop the bleeding.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

When I came to Hitch was shouting something and it took me a moment to figure out he was talking to Gus looking down from the ridge, asking if we were OK. I gave him a little wave and wanted to get up. But Hitch told me I had knocked my head and had a bleeding gash on my head. Automatically if fumbled at it with my fingers but he told me to stop. Withdrawing my hand I saw the blood on my fingertips. Hitch advised me to keep seated which seemed logical. I was sure I had suffered a concussion. I needed to wait and see if I would experience nausea.

 

My poor horse was in agony and his screams weren't helping with the headaches I was going to develop. Hitch wanted to shoot the poor creature after telling me that he had broken his spine. But I feared that the echo of the shot would attract the indians. So I handed him my knife.

  
He took it and placed it on my steeds forehead and hammered it in with his fist. Then he cut the throat as a safety measure to be sure that the animal was really dead. The screams stopped.

Hitch came back with my stuff and going through my saddlebags retrieve a bandage for my head which he fitted immediately.

 

Gus was watching on but I told him to take the men and move on.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

Captain Call came around fairly fast and soon gave Gus marching orders. “Tell Deets to watch out for a way to get up onto the ridge further downstream, Gus. We will march down stream as well. When you reach the spot Deets points out, Gus, leave a horse for me. Mine is dead. But don't wait for us. Move on with the boys. Gus, bring them home. Safely. Hitch and I will follow you. We might fall behind but we will follow, you hear.” Gus nodded and crawled away from the edge, kicking off another cavalcade of rocks and dirt.

 

Captain Call turned to me and asked me to help him up. “We need to get going.” He said, “Wont be long and a flood wave will rush through the gorge. We need to find a way out and soon.” I could only but agree.

I bent down and pulled his arm over my shoulder. Lifting him to his feet when straightening up again. “Are you dizzy? Nausea?” I asked but he said “No. As long as I'm not moving my head to fast, I'm fine.”

 

He let go of me and started to walk. I flung his stuff over my horse, took her by the reigns and fell in behind.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

I walked over to my horse and cut out two large pieces of meat. Would have been a pity to put it to waste. Wrapping it up I shoved it under the saddle of Hitch's horse. He tightened the saddle belt slightly to make sure we wouldn't loose it on the way.

 

Then we stumbled on. Walking the uneven riverbed was not so easy and I struggled falling back into my old limp.

 

“Are you hurt, Captain?” I heard him ask. He pointed at my leg. I stopped allowing him to catch up.

“Old wound.” I said and we kept walking side by side.

 

“How's the head?” He asked next and I grinned “Been better.” I said and he chuckled.

Start to like the guy.

 

We pushed on and every time I staggered his arm moved out to steady me just to let go immediately after. We pressed on and every now and again stopped to listen. But there was only silence.

I was glad for I knew that as soon as we heard a rumble we would be in deep shit.  
As soon as we could hear the rumble of the rushing in water it was already too late to get to safety.

 

Hitch scanned the cliff face and I looked up onto the edge hoping to find the horse Gus had promised to leave behind for me. But there was nothing.

My head throbbed with every step and then the nausea kicked in. I stepped into the river just in time. Hitch let go of his mare and held me whilst my body was shaken with violent ruptures as my stomach convulsed.

 

Hitch suggested a short rest but I refused.  

  
  
  



	5. Separated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hitch and call find themselves in the riverbed, separated from the rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are events mentioned which refer to Larry McMurtry’s book/movie “Dead Men’s Walk”.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 5   (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1234

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.  
A/N: There are events mentioned which refer to Larry McMurtry’s book/movie “Dead Men’s Walk”.

 

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

Captain Call finally got hit with nausea from the concussion caused by his crash landing on a rocky spot in the riverbed. I didn't realised he felt sick at first but when he staggered into the river I let go of my horse and rushed to his support.

His body was shaking violently as he threw up into the river. Even though he made no mention of it I could feel that he was glad for the support.

Cold sweat was on his brow and he shivered and was quite weak in the knees after the attack. I suggested a rest but with the expected flooding to hit us any minute Call refused.

 

We pressed on but this time I steadied him continuously as we marched. I could sense his impatience, angry with himself for slowing us down even.

We were hurrying over the uneven ground when I spied a landslide ahead. I just wanted to point it out to Call but he'd noticed already. This was our chance. Climbing up the landslide we would be able to get back onto the ridge out of harm's way. I could see Call checking the ridge above and I knew he was looking for a horse. However there was none. “They must have been past this spot before this happened.” I said, “Looks pretty recent to me.” He nodded.

 

We rushed to the spot and immediately started climbing up. I was dragging my chestnut on her reins behind me. Halfway up we paused and I let go of the horse's reins. She continued the climb until she reached the higher ground.

 

During that little breather we heard a low rumbling. Exchanging glances, I reached out my hand to the Captain and pulled him up the rubble heap. We stumbled onto the ridge and away from the edge when I saw a wall of white foamy water pushing through the riverbed.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

I could kick myself for being so clumsy and lame putting Hitch into danger by slowing us down substantially. I realised that he had noticed but he made no mention of it, which I was glad for. Letting me lean on his shoulder we staggered over the slippery, rocky ground. I expected us to be drowned any minute now. Couldn't be too long that the flood wave would hit us full force.

 

I noticed Hitch tensing and followed his gaze. A landslide obviously washed down by the rain was just ahead of us. That was our way out of the riverbed. Our pace quickened. I scanned the ridge hoping against hope to find a horse waiting for me up there. But I was only fooling myself and I knew it. That slide looked to fresh to have been encountered by Gus and the boys. They were able to move with much more speed than we had. Hitch stated the fact, confirming my thoughts.

 

We pressed on immediately tackling the slide on arrival. I had to steady myself with my hands several times during the climb. My right foot which had been broken many years ago had never been set and therefore healed in the wrong fashion was now troubling me quite a bit.

Hitch too had to steady himself with his left hand every once in a while. He held the mare's reins in his right dragging her up behind him.

 

Halfway up we both had to stop to catch our breath. Hitch let go of the horse's reins and the sturdy little animal climbed ahead all the way up, waiting for us at the top.

 

While we stopped we heard a rumble coming towards us. Hitch reached out for me and pulled me up to the ridge all the rest of the way. We stumbled away from the edge and collapsed to the ground. Underneath us we could hear the flood wave rushing through the canyon sounding like roaring thunder.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

I was bathed in sweat while at the same time drenched to the bone. Falling to the soaked ground glad to have reached safety in the nick of time. I s'pose that Call felt just the same, for he crumbled to the ground just next to me. I saw him reaching out for his right foot, giving it a good rub through the leather of his boot. “Bad?” I asked. He told me that he had his foot broken once a long time ago. He had not been able to have it checked and give it time to heal as he was forced a long foot march being a captive. Walking on the broken bones had caused them to heal improperly which now caused him some pain and was the reason for his limp.

“Sounds quite a story.” I replied and a grin flickered over his face. But there was no time for story telling as we were still in the midst of a rainstorm. I knew that we couldn't move on straight away, so I decided to erect a makeshift shelter so we could at least out wait the worst of the bad weather.

 

Using our saddles as seats and our coats buttoned together as a roof, I provided us with some sort of a tent. We had no means to make a fire so we sat close together wrapped in our saddle blankets.

“Captain, you should try to get some sleep.” I suggested offering him my shoulder to lean to.

He only gave in after I had agreed to wake him after two hours to get my share of sleep as well.

It didn't took long and his head slumped onto my shoulder and from his regular breathing I knew that he indeed had fallen asleep, despite the cold and wet.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

Hitch put up a makeshift tent to get us out of the rain. It was a little late for that as we were already wet to the skin but it kept the winds away and huddled close together we warmed each other with our shivering. Hitch had fetched our saddles so we hadn't to sit on the soaked ground any longer and our saddle blankets for cover. We flung mine of our backs and Hitch's on our chests. Sitting close side by side, I holding the blankets up with my right, he with his left.

 

He then asked me to sleep to regain my strength but I insisted on taking my share in the watch, asking him to wake me after two hours. However I was glad for him being so considerate and resting my head on his shoulder managed to dose off despite shivering from cold and exhaustion.

 

When I woke he looked at me smiling but tired and I scolded him a little for not having woken me. “You needed that sleep.” He simply said and coiled up onto my shoulder closing his eyes.

The grey strip on the horizon told me that it was dawning but neither wind nor rain had seized so far. In front of our little shelter there were two dark blotches and only when it grew lighter I recognised them to be our hats. Hitch had set them out to catch rainwater to refill our canteens.

 

I smiled down at his sleeping face on my shoulder. Very clever and crafty. A man right to my taste.

  
  



	6. Holding out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Separated from the Ranger boys, hitch and Call manage to get out of the riverbed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 6     (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1461

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

_A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”._

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

I got some sleep huddled up against Call's shoulder. When I woke the wind had died down but the rain was still pouring down, making the daylight grey and dull.

Below us I could hear the rush of water pressing through the gorge. Captain Call noticed me stirring and grinned as I was rubbing my eyes.

“Hungry?” He asked me and fumbled his food parcel from underneath his saddle. There was still no chance for us to lit a fire with the ground covered in water unable to soak it all up.

 

The bread had gone wet and mushy so we decided to mash it into a tin with beans before it would go all mouldy. We spooned the mixture directly out of the tin.

My belly was still rumbling and Call looked quite hungry too. So I cut tow strips of the horse meat for us. The meat had been softened slightly from being pressed under the saddle of my chestnut mare. However it was raw. “Sorry it's still raw.” I said to Call as I handed him his portion. He only shrugged producing his knife to cut it up in small bit size pieces. I was confirming to myself that this wasn't the first time Call was experiencing tough times. “Have you been through worse?” I asked and he just nodded. On my inquisitive look he added, “almost starved to death.” He then pointed to the sky with his knife. “Looks like it will clear up by afternoon.” Indeed there was a lighter strip promising the rain to die down if not to stop entirely.

 

“How's your head? Still feeling dizzy?” I enquired but he said “No.” Adding that he still suffered from the headaches.

So I told him to try to get some more rest before we would move on. I steadied him against my shoulder again whilst carefully handling our canteens.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

AS soon as Hitch woke we got ourselves some grub. I wasn't very happy to find that the bread soaking wet and soggy. But we squished it in with the beans eating directly out of the tin. Even after that we both still felt hungry so I nodded my agreement when Hitch cut up two small stripes of the horse meat. My stomach felt still a bit queasy. Therefore I cut my meat portion up into small bites. Hitch apologized for it being raw but it wasn't his fault so I just shrugged. He wanted to know if I had been in a similar mess before and I confirmed. This took me back to real hard times when I almost died. Compared to those days this was nothing at all.

 

I noticed that far back the sky had lightened up which meant that the weather was to take a change for the better approximately by afternoon.

In anticipation of another long march I took Hitch's advise and tried another nap, snuggling up against his shoulder again.

However I could feel him move. The muscles under his skin and clothes. The clothes still slightly damp just as mine. Through half closed eyes I watched him squeezing a lip into the hat to pour the rain water into one of the canteens without spilling to much. He struggled a bit keeping the hat steady, so I reached out and gave him a helping hand with my left. He looked back at me smiling and as his face lit up I had to look away not to betray myself. As I felt something stirring inside. He is a handsome fellow with an amicable character. Hope he didn't noticed, though.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

I thought the Captain would take a nap but instead his left arm reached out to support me in my effort to refill our canteens from the gathered rain water in our hats into the spout of the canteens. Feeling his breath on the skin of my neck I turned my face and smiled back at him but he looked away seemingly embarrassed.

 

I wondered if this very reclusive man had taken a liking to me. I decided to explore this slowly not to put him off. There was no need to rush especially as we would spend quite some time together over the coming weeks. What I wanted to avoid was to make him shy away with actions rash and inconsiderate.

 

I filled both canteens and placed our hats out again to be refilled by the rainwater dripping off our raincoat tent. Then I got up walking away from our little makeshift camp to empty my bladder.

When I returned Call got up vanishing in the same direction obviously feeling the same urge.

It took him longer due to the limp now clearly noticeable and he was cold and wet on his return.

I made sure that he was proper covered by our saddle blankets, rubbing him warm in the process. He couldn't speak, his teeth were clattering like mad making that odd rattling sound.

“We better not wait too long moving on. Sitting around in damp clothes, we'll catch our death.” I said but he shook his head and haltingly managed to utter “Wait till rain sizes. Shouldn't be too long now.”

 

Again he was right and the rain eventually waned. So we broke up camp and moved on following the river but this time further away from the edge.

However the longer we walked the worse grew his limp and even so I insisted on breaks he made them short which of course did not give him enough time to recover from the pain in his foot. Finally I forced him onto the horse to ride taking down his saddle to carry it on my shoulder. He protested at first but I simply ignored his ramblings.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

He either hadn't noticed or choose to ignore my moment of weakness. Instead he carried on filling up our canteens. When finished he put the hats back out for a second filling. He got up and left our make do shelter. I followed him with my eyes until I became aware what had urged him to venture out into the rain. It made me aware that I too had the same pressing business to tend to. As soon as he had rushed back and taken cover again, I decided that it would be my turn.

 

However my foot was troubling me and so it took me much longer. When I came back to our shelter I was soaked wet and shivering with cold. He wrapped me up in the blankets and rubbed me warm, which was nice and very considerate. Unfortunately I was shivering so hard that I couldn't manage to thank him for the attention he gave to me.

He suggested that we should move on as sitting in damp clothes wouldn't do our health any good, but I insisted to wait until the rain had died down a bit.

 

Two hours later we were on the move following the Colorado to lead us to Austin but keeping our distance to the edge of the canyon.

Alas, my foot was killing me after we had walked a few miles. Hitch took my saddle off the mare and shoved me up into his. I was protesting but he wouldn't hear of it. Flinging the saddle on his back and taking a tight grip on the bridle he walked side by side with the horse.

 

I felt really bad riding on the horse whilst he walked. But he ignored my lamentation. We carried on and after a few more miles Hitch pointed out to me a place in the canyon wall where we could have climbed out. “Do you see a horse somewhere, Captain?” He asked me. I looked around from high up on horseback but there was no horse to be found.

 

However we spotted horse tracks leading away form the river. After an inspection Hitch and I agreed to track down the horse and therefore turned away from the river.

But I insisted to get down and walk as it made it easier for me to read the tracks. It was fairly clear that the horse had not just wandered off but was rather led away. The tracks clearly showed the prints of the shoed horse Gus had left behind for me. But there were also prints of two other horses, hoof prints of unshod horses. This could only mean that indians had taken the horse. Especially as we had found the wooden plug pulled out from the ground where Gus had tied the horse to.

Immediately Kicking Wolf the famous Comanche horse-thief sprang to my mind.

 


	7. How to steal a horse!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hitch and Call find that Indians have taken the horse the Rangers had left behind for Call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”.

[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
  **Title: A new Recruit – Part 7**   (crossposting to meduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1198

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

_A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”._

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

I spotted the place where Gus had left a horse for Call. However the horse was gone. The Captain got down from my mare checking the tracks. I was astonished to find that he was quite competent at interpreting the tracks. When I asked him he grinned and explained that he was watching and learning from their Indian scout Famous Shoes, a Kickapoo.

The tracks made clear that the horse hadn't tore loose but had been taken. The hoof prints of two unshod horses suggested that indians had been responsible.

 

Quick minded Call decided to track down the Indians to get the horse back that had been intended for him. I could only agree to this decision. If we could get the horse back it would make our progress to Austin much easier and faster.

Therefore we abandoned our initial idea of following the river to Austin but followed the trail left by the horse-thieves instead.

 

Call did not remount. So I put his saddle back on my horse, happy to get rid of the heavy load for now. Call speeded up and I had to grin seeing how the goal made him totally forget the pain in his foot. He was determined to get that horse and catch the thieves.

So we followed the tracks at the double. Me holding my chestnut by her bridle still.

 

I never had thought that he could march so fast despite the pain in his wrongly healed foot bones were causing him. Now all that seemed to be forgotten and I had trouble to keep up with him, dragging the horse with me.

The rain had stopped which at least made it easier to travel and I understood Call's hurry. We had to stay on the trail while the tracks were still fresh.

 

The ground grew uneven and hilly the further we moved from the river. Several times we stopped and each time Captain Call pulled out his knife pushing it into the ground pressing his ear to it. I knew that he was more after vibrations in the ground than after sound. We reached a small hill and he did it again. This time I saw his face lightening up as he pulled his knife out. He turned towards me and said “They're close.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

If the horse-thief was indeed Kicking Wolf then we had to be quick. We Rangers had hunted this particular Comanche for about ten years and never had managed to catch him or even come close. This time however I was determined and set our travel speed to fast, very fast.

Adrenalin was rushing through my veins and forgotten were the pains in my foot. My mind fully focussed on the task ahead.

 

This must have taken Hitch by surprise and at first he struggled to keep up. But soon he found the same rhythm and we made good progress in the fast changing landscape.

To establish were our culprits were heading to I stopped, took out my knife, pushed it into the ground placing my ear on the handle to figure out if there were vibrations giving away any nearby movement. Gladly Hitch seemed to understand what I was doing and managed to keep his horse still.

It took three times and then there was success. But I could not see them. This could only mean they were on lower ground than we. I signalled Hitch to be as quiet as possible and to make the horse lay down so that we could not been detected from below. I wasn't sure how many indians we would encounter and there was glad to see Hitch picking and making ready his eight-gauge. However I didn't wanted him to shoot before I gave the command but he seemed to know what I was wanting him to do. Again a warm feeling for my companion washed through me.

 

Flat on my belly I crawled to the top of the small hill. On the way I picked up some rocks.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

Call signalled me to keep silent and lay low. He obviously had the feeling we had closed in on the thieves. He wanted me to get my mare to lay down too. It took only a moment and the chestnut got down first on her knees and then rolling over on her side. I patted her for being a good girl. Then I pulled out my eight-gauge from the saddle holster and cracked it open to load.

 

Call looked back at me at first worried and I immediately knew that he wanted me to just be ready as a back up plan. So I smiled and nodded my understanding and he returned the smile. I felt a warmth spreading through my chest. We made a good team. Understood each other without any unnecessary words needed.

 

I saw him picking up some rocks as he crawled up onto the hill top. Over there behind that hill it seemed he thought our suspects were hiding. I wondered what he was planning to do with those rocks. But in the end I wasn't learning that on this instance but later.

 

What happened next was so swiftly performed that I wasn't sure that I grasped all the action. Call vanished over the hilltop. Without having to fire one shot the Captain returned with three horses on a lead. One of them bearing a brand, clearly marking her as the horse Gus had left behind intended for the Captain and me to find.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

I was astonished to find Hitch on the same wave length. He immediately seemed to grasp that I needed him to watch my back.

I crawled up that hill, the rocks in my pants' pocket. If I was lucky I would get the horse back without a shot fired and warning whatever indians there were close by. But first there was need for some reconnaissance. As flat to the ground as possible I crawled up hill until I could look into the depression.

 

There were the three horses, forelegs hobbled. I slid over the top of the small hill and let myself roll down the other side. The horses must have mistaken me for a log for they just moved a bit out of the way and then continue grazing without making much noises that would alarm anyone. I slowly crawled further hoping to spy out the camp but I did not find anyone. However what I did find were footprints. The size of the prints suggested children. I carefully looked further following the footprints. They were met at the other end of the depression with larger adult footprints and more unshod horse prints. It was clear what had been going on but I had to act fast.

 

I got back took the horse and the two mustangs on a lead, unhobbling their forelegs and returned over the hill where Hitch was waiting for me.

“Best be off fast.” I said. “They might come for the horses.” I was thinking of emptying my pockets from the rocks but then decided otherwise. They might come handy for hunting.

  
  
  


 


	8. A treacherous crossing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the Indians in their neck call and hitch attempt a river crossing.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 8  (crosspostingmeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1565

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

 _A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”._  
        To helena_s_renn with best wishes for her birthday.

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

I had the Captain's saddle ready when he returned but he asked me to put it down, mount and guard our retreat instead. “I bet we will will find ourselves in some red-skinned company soon.” He said whilst quickly saddling the retrieved horse. “Hitch, mount up and keep an eye open.” And I did as ordered to. As soon as his mount was ready he grabbed the lead which still held the two mustangs and swung himself into his saddle. We made a speedy departure riding back towards the Colorado river.

 

As we neared the river we slowed down again to spare our horses. We turned in our saddles to see if we were followed already but so far we didn't see anyone.

Letting our horses fall into a canter we rode side by side and Call told me of his findings at the site he had gotten the horses from. “Possibly two boys on their adulthood challenge.” He assumed, “The adults – hmm, not sure – if the boys were lucky they were of their own. Maybe stirred up by Gus and the boys.”

 

We didn't speak of the indian boys' fate if that assumption had not been correct. In any case it was clear that soon we would encounter indian warriors, who would be after our horses.

 

Austin was on the other river bank which meant we would have to cross over sooner or later. Call opted for rather sooner than later and we decided to take the first possible option. So I stopped, dismounted and carefully stepped to the edge of the ridge to have a look into the riverbed to evaluate our situation.

Some paces further ahead a large tree-trunk had blocked the river like a dam. It would make a good crossing over or rather below the damed-up water. So I looked out to find a way down from the ridge that was manageable on horseback.

Captain Call had ridden ahead in the meantime to make investigations of his own and now agitatedly waved at me to catch-up.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

We rode back to the river valley in a rush but then let our horses fall into a canter. This would safe their energy but still I kept an eye out for a band of indians, knowing that they surely would come in pursuit. I updated Hitch to make him aware that we had to expect to be hunted down for our horses.

Hitch nodded and soon after went down from is horse to have a check where we could cross the river.

 

I had ridden ahead and now signalled him that I had found a safe way down into the riverbed and out again at the other side. Helping was of course that the last flooding had dammed-up the river somewhere and so only little water flowed.

Knowing that Hitch's eight-gauge would carry much further than my rifle, I asked Hitch to do the crossing first. I remained up on the ridge to secure Hitch's crossing and for a good reason as I soon learnt.

 

For just when Hitch and his little mare made the climb up the cliff onto the plateau on the other river bank, I spotted a band of indians heading towards me. So I pressed my rifle against my shoulder taking aim to take down the first of the approaching warriors. As soon as they reached firing distance I pulled the trigger. Thank god the horse I was sitting on had received a Ranger's training and stood very still despite the loud noises made by my gun. The two mustangs were a different story altogether. But the mare I was sitting on held steady.

 

I had to concentrate on firing and therefore couldn't see when Hitch reached the top of the opposite ridge. But I heard his first shot with his eight-gauge which signalled me to turn and prepare for the river crossing.

Carefully I led my horse down the small path to the bottom of the cliff. The lead holding the two mustangs I had fixed to my saddle-horn. The two indian ponies followed steady footed. In front above me I heard Hitch firing, loading, firing. Behind my back I heard the howling and whooping of the savages hot at my heels. I was halfway through the riverbed when a spear hit close by and one of the mustangs tore loose. But I had no time to get him back, so I just pressed on climbing out of the river. I was so busy getting up on the other side that I did not noticed that Hitch had stopped shooting.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

Call had found a way for us to cross over. Knowing that the firing range of my eight-gauge were greater than the reach of his own gun. So he insisted for me to cross over first. I managed fairly well and had just reached the other side when I heard Call firing his rifle. Quickly I reached for my eight-gauge and took up shooting whilst Call got moving and hurried to cross the river.

 

I lost sight of Call when he was halfway through that gorge. On the ridge on the other side the band of indians was closing in. That was when I remembered that log blocking up the water. I calculated that until I had reached the spot, lassoed the tree out of the way to flood the river, Call should be up on this side. With a little luck some of the indians might have made it down into the gorge by then and might be washed away as well.

 

At least that was the idea I had in mind when I stopped shooting and raced up river to release the blockage. Somehow I was sure that Call would make it all right.

Pressing on I reached the spot above the dammed-up water. I uncoiled my lasso and started to swing out. After two attempts I managed to get hold of a sticking out branch and started to pull it away spurring my mare to move backward slowly.

 

Just when the log started to move, Call's head dived up from the gorge. With a few more jumps he and his horse stood on the ridge. The log moved away and a flood-wave of water rushed through the riverbed below.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

As soon as I was up on the other side I turned my horse, fetched my rifle. But the Indians were busy descending the ridge on the other river bank. So I looked out for Hitch and finally found him further up river pulling at something with his lasso.

When I heard something crunching and looked down into the river towards the source of the noise it suddenly clicked. I could see on the faces of those indians who had reached the riverbed that they too had come to the same conclusion. I didn't even need to watch the wave of water gushing through that canyon.

 

The indians down below panicked. I heard them shouting, saw them turning their horses around desperate to get back and climb out to the gorge the shortest possible way, blocking themselves in the process. Ignoring the chaos that unfolded below in the riverbed I rode up to Hitch who had shaken loose his lasso sling and was now coiling it up again.

 

“Nice work.” I said as I rode up to him. “Let's kick it.” He looked at me and smiled and then frowned. “What happened to the second mustang?” He asked me and I shrugged. “Tore loose. Mid river and ran off.” I told him and added that I had decided against following the animal and rather get up on the ridge especially with the indians breathing in my neck.

“Glad you did.” He said grinning. We rode on and I joked that those indians possibly would catch up with us again as soon as they had crossed the Colorado further down stream at the ford where the San Saba hit.

Hitch looked worried and I had to chuckle. “No worries.” I said, “I don't think that those guys follow us. They are not stupid. It's not worthwhile to risk drowning for two measly horses and that pinto there doesn't count at all.”

 

That evening I agreed to a small fire being lit. “But we better not leave it burning over night.” I said. The light would be seen far on the high plateau we were on. So we used it for cooking our food and some coffee. When the sun sank Hitch killed it and then placed his sleeping bag which now was dry again by the extinguished fire opposite mine.

 

I raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing?” I asked. “Do you want us to die from exposure after we made it through all that trouble?”

It was clearly written on his face that he didn't knew what I meant so I fetched his sleeping bag and placed it right next to mine. Pointing at the sky where the stars made a first appearance I added, “it's going to be a cold and clear night. We shall be glad for each others warmth. Unless you resent being close to me.” I winked at him and he blushed.  

  
  
  
  
  
  



	9. A night on the Plains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Out of danger for the moment Hitch and Call spend the night together on the plain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”.

[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
  **Title: A new Recruit – Part 9**  (crossposted to meduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1635

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

_A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”._

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

Call made a remark like we're to expect a cold night and took my sleeping bag to place it neatly next to his. But he didn't stop there. Arguing that we would be glad for the shared warmth he tied our soogans together. The saddle blanket underneath should shield us from the ground which was to grow freezing cold in the small hours. The turned over saddlebags were to be used as pillows. On top he placed the our two riding coats buttoned together in the same fashion as I had done earlier. Ready at hand to serve as additional covers.

 

Having prepared our bedding Call started to shrug off his leggin’s and the jacket. He then unbuckled his belt and shrugged the suspenders of his shoulders. Opened the buttons of his pants, tucked out his shirt and began to unbutton it. He folded his shirt nice and neatly and placed onto his part of the twin saddlebags. Pushing his pants down he sat down and fiddled his pants over his boots before folding them and putting them atop his shirt. Seeing me raise an eyebrow, he chuckled. “You don't want anyone stealing them while you sleep, would you. So use them as a pillow and if somebody wants to take them you notice. But maybe you want to sleep in full gear, get it all crinkled up, like they do. I don't like that though.” He was down to his long johns with the boots on his feet, he placed his hat back on his head.

 

Unabashed he sat down on his side of the sleeping rolls and removed his boots only to chuck them together shaft into shaft. They then went onto the pile of clothes. He took one look at me still standing fully dressed and crawled in between the covers. Pushed his hat over his face and lay still.

 

So I followed his lead did my clothes and boots away as he had done and joined him under the cover. At first I felt strange and lay stiffly next to him. Seeing Woodrow – I mean Captain Call strip down to his long johns had left me breathless and aroused. I worried that he noticed my agitation. I was glad that he pushed his hat into his face when I began to undress. I feared that I was sporting a decisive bulge and the thought of slipping in next to his slim muscled body wasn't helping either.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

For the first time I realised that despite his cookie duster and goatee, which he was in the habit of stroking both when thinking, Hitch was a young colt, a filly actually. I bet he lied about his age when enrolling. Of course the 'stache and beard made him look older but on closer look he couldn't be much past twenty. He fidgeted around like he was ashamed to undress. Didn't took a genius to know why. So I crawled under the covers and pushed my sombrero into my face feigning sleep.

From underneath the rim I watched him stepping out of his clothes.

 

Nice muscled well toned body. Slim and eager. The latter was proven by the horn he was sporting in his long johns. Looking at him, bending to step out of his boots left me with a throbbing gristle too. He laid down a little stiffly next to me and I could feel him shivering.

So I reached out and pulled him close. “You're cold?” I said starting to rub his arms and chest. I could feel his breath on my hands as I circled them over his chest.

 

“Damn, Woodrow.” He muttered and pressed himself against me, his hands reaching out for mine and pushing them against his boner. With my free hand I grabbed his head by the hair and pulled him to my lips until we kissed. I noticed that he was somewhat experienced but then again he had been a soldier so why wouldn't he.

 

His hands shook while he opened my long johns and pushed them down from my shoulders out of the arms and down the hips. I assisted as best as possible which was awkward at times as I wouldn't let go of his crotch.

He dove under the cover and I hissed as his lips and teeth found my hard-on. He lifted his head to mumble something like “sorry” but I just pushed him back down again.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

I shivered and I knew it wasn't from cold but I couldn't stop myself. I held my breath when Woodrow reached out for me, asking me if I was cold. He began to rub my arms and then my chest making me even more aroused and my breath started to go fast. His hands on my breast I only remember that it was too hard to bear and I heard myself saying “Damn, Woodrow.” Pressing my body against his and with the courage of a drowning man I reached out for his hand and pressed it against my swollen flesh. He rubbed me hard and I reached out to explore if I had a response. He grabbed my hair and kissed me hard. I opened my mouth willingly, praying for his tongue to penetrate. I whimpered when it did. I let go of his fly and with shaking fingers started to unbutton his long johns. I pushed them over his shoulders and could feel him assisting me to get them off his warm skin.

 

Despite the warmth of his skin I felt his nipples standing up and so I move in to lick and suck at them moving further down until I reached his erection. He hissed as I engulfed him with my mouth scraping my teeth against the bucking rod. I though 'clumsy' me had hurt him and lifted my head to apologize but he just pushed me back down with his strong hands and I gladly did what he non verbally asked me to do.

 

I was hunched up somewhat awkward as his hand held on to my woody still squeezing and rubbing. But feeling him inside my mouth, smelling him was heaven and so I didn't cared that my limps gone all prickly.

 

It was his hand that pulled my lower body upwards and unbuttoned the back flap of my underwear. The sudden coldness made me shiver again. But then there were his hands reaching, stroking and pushing inside me. I wouldn't let go of his cock so I groaned pushing my arse out for him to push deeper inside.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

Hell, that boy was good with his tongue and he gave my boner a damn good sucking. I felt almost a bit left out but then reached for his legs and pulled them over, so I could reach for the back flap and undo the buttons. I was greeted by the most delicious sight of a pale full moon. So I reached in and whilst fondling his dangling bit, followed the grove with the fingers of my other hand. He pushed out in welcome and so I pressed my finger inside his hot opening. He groaned and pushed out even more. So I dug deeper making sure to reach for his sweet spot and giving it a good rubbing.

 

He sucked me so hard as a reaction to my entrance that I almost came. So I pulled my finger out and pushed him away. “Turn around.” I said my voice all husky with lust. “Spread yourself and bend over.” He followed my instructions and I reached for the tin with saddle grease which I knew was in the saddlebag that was my pillow.

 

I plugged out a nice big dollop and blew on it to warm it up a little. “This will be cold.” I warned him but he eagerly spread his crevasse with both hands and I smeared it all around his opening muscle. Then I took another to rub it onto my hard-on. He watched my preparations and whimpered impatiently. “Yeah, just a minute. Just a sec.” I said and reach out for him pressing myself hard inside. He bucked underneath me and groaned opening himself up as wide as he could. I pushed myself deep inside feeling him clasp tight around me again. A long lustful moan escaped my breast and then I heard him say “Do it, Woodrow. Take me. Do it.” I loved the way he pronounced my name and I kissed and bit into his shoulder. Whispered in his ear how beautiful he felt all tight around me.

 

Then I couldn't hold back any longer and fucked him hard, my hands on his prick rubbing him hard. He was on his hands and knees rocking, struggling not to be pushed over.

Then it went all very quick he spilled into my hand and slackened so I had to hold him up whilst I was pumping inside him until I too spent myself utterly.

 

I reached for my bandana to clean him up so that his underwear wouldn't be too stained. Of course I couldn't prevent some spillage. Then I wiped his arse and place a kiss on it. I let him sink down and rolled him over undressing the last bit of him until he too was gloriously naked. I looked down at him. All sweaty and heavy breathing. So I took my tongue and ran it from his loin up all along his belly and his breastbone. Until I reached his face. I licked at the lips slightly open still gasping for air and sealed them for a short breathless kiss.

  
Then I rolled myself next to him and we spooned until we fell asleep.

  
  
  
  
  
  



	10. Green eyed Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hitch shows the first signs of jealousy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 10  (crossposting tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1514

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

_A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events._

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

We spooned and Woodrow held me pressed close to his body. I could feel his breath blowing against the back of my head. My mind wandered back to the last time I had had sex. It had been a while and strangely enough I couldn't remember with whom I had it. The only thing I could remember was that he had worn a blue uniform just as I. But I couldn't remember that it had felt so good.

 

Some time later, I must have fallen asleep, Woodrow stirred and woke me. He was still holding me in his arm and I could feel him growing hard again. I pressed myself tighter against him but apart from his boner nothing stirred. So I reached behind me searching until I held his wood in my hand and greedily directed him, pressing myself against him until the resistance broke and he slipped inside me.

 

Woodrow stirred a little and murmured something that sounded like “Hold still you bugger.”

I held still for a moment afraid that he might turn and break the contact but he didn't. Instead his hand moved down from my chest between my legs groping until he found what he had been searching for. I gasped and pushed him deeper inside me when I felt his hard hand around my hot swollen flesh.

 

I was getting impatient and started to wiggle my hips. A firm clasp on my willy and another “hold still” had me moaning with lust. “I want. I need.” I whispered. “Please.” He didn't move just held my throbbing penis firmly in his grasp. Then I felt the first brush inside me and I knew that even though he hadn't move his hard-on did and the pulsing sensation inside me grew. My own hard-on responded immediately with a copy of the pulsing.

 

Even though we both lay still I could feel him swelling up and vibrating inside me until some hot fluid flushed into me and his erection slackened again. I feared he might slip out of me so I kept my body firmly pressed against his. The stickiness between my legs told me that I too had reached a climax. It had been the laziest sex I had ever experienced and I wasn't sure at all if Woodrow had slept through it all.

Sticky, warm and utterly satisfied with him still buried inside me I fell asleep again.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

It must have been in the early hours that I felt Hitch pressing himself against me and I had the feeling that I was sporting a throbbing gristle again as well. But I dosed off, cosy and warm as we were cuddled up. Until I could feel his hand directing me inside him. He wiggled and I remember murmuring “Hold still” otherwise I would have spent myself straight away.

I moved my hand in search for his boner and soon was successful but he started to wiggle again as soon as I touched him. So I repeated that he should hold still. He did and I could feel myself stirring inside him without moving my body. He whimpered and moaned a little which turned me on.

Finally we both came very slowly and tender. I grunted satisfied and even though I was still inside him fell asleep.

 

I woke before dawn from the weirdest dream. In my dream I had been marching on foot for miles in search of something. Only I couldn't remember what it had been I had been searching. Gus and some of the boys had been in my dream too. They had snickered and pointed at me. Laughed right at me. With a startle I woke from this strange nightmarish dream.

 

Hitch had rolled over and sighed deeply but was still asleep. I fished my long johns from the soogan slipped into them and put my boots on. Grabbing my rifle I made my way to the bushes to say good riddance to my piss proud.

 

On my way back I gathered some dry moss and old branches as I was fixin' to start a fire for breakfast. I put the stuff down when back in our camp and went to put my pants on. I was stepping inside them as a lonesome figure appeared on the horizon, quickly growing in size on his approach.

I immediately recognised the runner for who he was and walked towards him in greeting.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

I woke with a smile on my face and turned to reach for Woodrow. However the sleeping roll was abandoned. I sat up noticing that his boots and pants were gone. Looking about me I couldn't see him but noticed a bunch of fire making material dumped next to our old fire place.

 

I searched for my underwear and awkwardly put it on whilst still sitting inside the soogan. I had hoped to see Woodrow being nearby I guess but apart from me stirring nobody was there.

I got up stepped inside my boots and reached for my pistol. That was when I saw the two people standing further away in conversation. I had to shield my eyes from the rising sun but still couldn't quite make them out. One of them I thought to be Woodrow, from stance and height. The other person seemed to be an indian. But Woodrow's behaviour led me to the conclusion that he knew this person well. Very well. Too well.

A stabbing pain went through my chest.

 

The indian pointed in my direction and I could see Woodrow's head bobbing up and down in agreement with whatever those two were discussing. The hurt intensified and I could not bear to watch on. So I made my way to the bushes to relief myself. Fishing out some old newspaper rags as well for the clean up afters.

 

The back flap of my long johns was still open and I could feel the cold morning air on my buttocks but I didn't bother to button up as I was planning to do some business.

I crouched down and went about my business however the pictures of those two were racing through my brain and so I tried to banish those painful thoughts by cursing out loud whilst pressing hard. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

I met with Famous Shoes our long time indian scout whom I knew from many adventures we had overcome in the past. He informed me that there was trouble brewing.

 

The Kickapoo reported back rumours he first had heard of a planned punishment commando against the Kiowa and Comanche. Of course I knew of the incidents on the Santa Fé trail but with most of the Rangers gone to war our outfit was so diminished that we struggled to control the vast area from the panhandle to the Rio Grande. And since the war the eastern outfits had been dissolved and the men drafted. That left the country east of the Brazos wild and uncontrolled as well.

 

Famous Shoes told me that on his search to find the big tree with the hole where the turtle had created the world he had stumbled into a Colonel Carson at Fort Bascom, who was just on his way to Cimarron hoping to get indian scouts for his mission. The Colonel had asked him to join as his scout but our Kickapoo had politely declined and claimed that he had work to do for the Texas Rangers.

I wondered what business a Colonel from New Mexico would have crossing the border to the panhandle, at least Famous Shoe declared that this was the plan. But I decided to put this information forward to the governor to see what he made of all this hubbub.

 

I'd asked Famous Shoes if he would accompany Hitch and me back to Austin but he just shook his head in decline declaring that he would go home. I knew how mischievous the red-skins would become when not getting their will, so I just shrugged. But this of course meant that Hitch and I had to speed up our return to Austin.

 

Then Famous Shoes and I embraced for good-bye and he left me standing, turning towards the Northwest again. I knew that he was heading for his tribes camp near the Canadian river. If necessary I could always collect him from there when needed. I looked on for a short while watching him disappear before turning back to our camp. I fear my indian companion was a little annoyed when he saw Hitch at camp. But I didn't gave it a further thought. However Famous Shoes had point blank refused to meet Hitch. I couldn't help but chuckle a little as I suspected this to be an attack by the famous green eyed monster.

 

Back at camp I was fixin' getting the fire started for breakfast when I heard Hitch yelling. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” I grabbed my rifle and made a dash to the chaparral from which the shouts were coming.

 

 

  
  



	11. The morning after

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the morning after the night before and both are stuck trying to sort themselves out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 11  (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1613

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

_A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events._

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

I was in mid business when I heard the rustling of the bushes, branches braking, something or someone was storming towards me.

I remembered what our drill sergeant had told us when I picked up soldiering. 'A man is at his most vulnerable when he's down to do his business.' That was why we always had to go with at least one fellow companion. I knew I should have waited for Woodrow to come back, made him aware of what I was going to do and where I went. However it was too late for that now.

 

I was determined to shoot everything or everyone down that stampeded through the shrubs as soon as it would be in reach of my pistol. So I grabbed for my gun and made myself ready.

 

The rustling grew louder and I cocked my colt. I certainly wouldn't go down without a proper fight, determined to take someone or -thing with me.

By the amount of noise it sounded as if a herd of bison was approaching. My heart raced and I had to steady myself awkwardly positioned as I was, to keep my pistol straight.

 

A dark figure broke through and at the last minute I recognised Woodrow.

 

I sighed my relief and sank down a little. Despite the awkwardness of the situation I was glad to see him. Suddenly it clicked in my head that not only I was in midst shitting but also had almost shot at him and somehow I grew very angry.

 

“Next time you could shout that you are come. Fuck, I almost shot you. Damn it!” I waved my colt in front of his nose.

 

He stared back at me rifle in his hands all ready to shoot himself. A frown grew on his brow. He took his gun down and sighed in relief just as I had done.

 

“I would prefer if you could go on quiet with your business and not shout your accomplishment of whatever you are just doing.” He said and suddenly cracked up in laughter. This broke the tension of the situation and I joined in.

 

“I leave you to it.” He said and turned away. Over his shoulders he added. “I'll fixin' cooking breakfast.”

 

As soon as he was gone again I blushed in embarrassment. Scolding myself for shouting out loud. Of course he must have thought me in some kind of trouble.

So when finished I returned shamed faced to our camp. He had the fire going, the coffee pot was already providing the most delicious smell. In the pan there were next to the usual beans two eggs staring back at me with bubbling eyes.

 

We sat side by side eating, not exchanging a glance or a word. Something was occupying his mind. And I could see the thoughts literally washing over his face. In silence I prayed that those thoughts weren't concerning me.

 

I watched him breaking up camp, noticed the urgency with which he conducted his chores and without having to be told fell in at the same speed.

We packed up and mounted up. He immediately pushed his horse into a canter straight away and surprised me with it utterly.

So I had to gallop a short distance to catch up with him.

 

Damn, this felt all very awkward and I was unsure if I should address him and foremost how to address him. All over sudden it I was back to thinking of him as Captain Call, for that was who I saw riding ahead of me. This man silent and determined had nothing in common with the Woodrow who had held me in his arms only a few hours ago. Thinking of our night together suddenly felt like a dream as if I had only imagined it all.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

I ran while at the same time getting my rifle ready. Breaking through the chaparral like a stampeding bull. I cursed silently wishing I had already put my chaps on. But I hadn't and I could feel the thorns on the bushes scraping my pants and the skin underneath.

Fuck, it couldn't be helped. The only thought in my mind was to reach Hitch in time.

 

When I broke through the shrubs coming face to face with him he pointed his pistol at me just as I did him with my rifle. Gladly neither he nor I are trigger-happy guys. So we evaluated the situation and took our weapons down. He grew very angry and somehow I knew it was because he had almost shot at me.

 

I told him to refrain from shouting out in triumph on concluding his business successfully next time. Informed him that breakfast was going to be ready as I left him to his business.

 

Thoughts popping up in my mind uninvited. I cussed that I had dropped my guard. This was the situation I had so tried to avoid – getting involved. Out here it was hard enough to keep one's own hair. No need to trouble oneself with somebody else's.

Even though that was exactly my daily line of work. Rescuing people in trouble or solving it. However experience had taught me that normally there was nothing much left to be done but digging graves.

 

I was such an idiot. I had managed to stir clear of female attachment especially after that episode with Maggie. I could not afford to take up responsibilities. And here I was stuck in a forming relationship and what made matters worse, with a possible future compadre. Best would be to end it before it settled and became hurtful.

 

Especially with the prospect of the unfolding trouble stirred up by that New Mexican Colonel.

 

I rushed breaking up camp after a quick breakfast. I caught myself throwing sideways glances at Hitch. He too had kept to himself, not spoken a word after the incident earlier.

 

The silence was building between us and wasn't broken during mounting up and pressing on. Hitch didn't even asked me why I was rushing all over sudden.

However my storming off caught him unawares and it took him a little while to catch up with me. I knew that I should have said a word to explain but something inside me had snap shut. My brain was telling me 'Don't go there. Don't get it started again. Keep your distance. Better now than later.'

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

All morning we rode side by side not speaking a word. I had the growing fear that Call regretted his actions of the night before. I was wrecking my brain if I had done anything to trigger his remorse.

One thought formed and would not be pushed aside, I was back at square one.

 

Call had withdrawn, hiding his emotions deep inside. And I was not sure if I could penetrate so deep to pull him out of his inner sanctum and how. What frustrated me most was that I could not put my finger on what had caused his total retreat.

 

And Call was in no mood to share his thoughts with me. The only explanation I had was that his meeting with the indian might have something to do with his hurry and worried state. For the frown on his forehead had not left since we had set off.

 

The wall of silence was depressing me and when we stopped for a quick lunch break I couldn't bear his ignorance any longer.

“What's up? Something happened and I don't like to be shut out, Captain.” Something inside me had told me not to use the more intimate approach of using his first name. “Tell me, Captain. I know something's happened and I s'pose that it has to do with you meeting this indian this morning.” I carefully tried to avoid any personal topic for I knew he would close up instantaneously.

 

I stepped into his way making clear that I was determined to get an answer of him. He sighed deeply, nodded and pushed his plate away with the tip of his boot.

 

“Bad news.” He said simply. “Need to get to Austin pronto. Need to inform the governor. There's something brewing.” Well, I knew that this was all he was willing to uncover. So I sighed too.

“OK. Then let's make haste.” I said, getting up to break up camp.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

All morning I had fought with my sentiments. My brain was telling me to end this affair before it was manifesting into a relationship. My heart was in opposition. It was no good, I was torn in two halves.

 

Hitch broke the silence by midday at our lunch break insisting to know what had happened between last night and breakfast. I knew of course that the answer he really was after had nothing to do with what I was providing, not even close. He didn't dared to asked openly and I was unable to tell him what he wanted to hear. However he took it like a man.

To see him straighten his shoulders bracing himself for a blow, gave me a stab in the heart.

 

I argued with myself that if I explained my position to him he possibly see my point. But somehow I could not get the words out or right. What ever I thought of did not seem to be clear, sufficient or even convincing.

 

I wondered if I had to convince myself first. Watching him breaking up camp getting ready for the next leg, hurt me. Yet, still I couldn't express my feelings and so I remained silent.

 


	12. Of Injuries and Indians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hitch finds Call injured and whilst looking for a source of treatment more Indians arrive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 12  (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1374

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

_A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events._

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

Call replied only in a brief very professional fashion sticking to the topic I had enquired after. I was fairly sure that he knew what I had wanted to know but somehow either he did not want or was not able to give me an answer. So I decided to leave it – for now.

 

Not willing to let the afternoon pass in silence, I began to ask how long we would need to reach Austin if we kept up our tempo. I turned around awaiting his reply and saw him rubbing his legs. “What's the matter? Does your foot trouble you again?” I asked, but he shook his head and undid his pants, stepped out to them. Then he rolled up the legs of his long johns and I exclaimed in shock.

 

His legs were marred with scratches and some deeper wounds. “Jeez, Woodrow! When did that happen?” I shouted and immediately remembered his rescue sprint in the morning. I blushed as he told me when. “Why in all the world didn't you say something? We could have taken care of that from the beginning!” I scolded him and now he blushed looking utterly sexy to me. So I had to tell myself off to concentrate on helping him with those wounds.

 

He said that he had wanted to wait until we reached Austin not to slow us down. “In Austin I'd gone to see the doctor.” He replied.

“Now, that you have work out fine!” I said. Gladly we hadn't put out the fire yet and I submitted my knife to the flames.

“Damn it, Woodrow, really. I thought you to be more logical. Some of these wounds still have the thorns in and starting to fester.” He looked at me grinning sheepishly for he knew well that all my ramblings were for a good reason and showed my concern.

 

I told him to sit down firmly and to stretch out his legs for me. I grabbed his spread legs starting with the left to inspect the wounds. There were at least five deeper wounds with the thorn buried deep where I had to cut. Then there were some more with the thorns sticking out so they could be picked out by hand. I started with those. Then I went for the knife. “It will hurt.” I said, “Do you have something to drink somewhere?” I asked for I knew that I had no alcohol with me. But he shook his head “I don't booze.” He simply said. So I sighed and went to work. He hissed each time I started to cut.

 

“What are we doing to prevent these wounds from festering and giving you gangrene? Without alcohol I don't see ...” He interrupted me pointing out to the prairie. “See those plants over there?” He said and I nodded. Those tree like bushes were hardly to overlook. “Cut off some branches and most important of all, collect as much of the gum as you can.” He told me. Then he handed my his large and sturdy knife. “This is better for that job.” He said. “You will find the wood is very hard.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

My legs were paining me and I rubbed but that made it worse rather than better. So I stepped out of my pants and rolled up my long johns to have a look.

I have to admit that my legs had received a pretty good scraping when I rushed through those thorny bushes in the attempt to rescue Hitch.

 

There were some of the thorns still sticking inside the flesh. Hitch said something about how long it would take us to Austin and then he turned to face me.

“Jeez, Woodrow.” He shouted and rushed to my side. Asking how this had happened but then blushed and I think he remembered me trying to rescue him that morning.

 

I had to face a tirade of telling off, which was of course mainly down to him being worried and ashamed that his action had caused my injuries. Then his practical side kicked in and I had to present my legs for him to inspect the wounds. He stuck his blade into the fire and then began to pull out the thorns which stuck out and could be removed with the fingers.

 

Before reaching for his knife he asked me if I had some booze with me but I shook my head. I am not a drinking man and I despise those who do. Gus would regularly wind me up when he went on his boozing sprees.

 

Everett was very stead with the knife and even though it hurt quite a bit I managed to withhold screaming out loud. Especially the first cut with the hot blade was extremely painful. I guess I moaned slightly but managed to keep my wits.

 

When he had finished his operation he asked me how disinfect the wounds, especially as we had no alcohol with us. I looked around and spied some Mesquite bushes further away. I told him to get some branches and most of all the gum from the cuts.

 

He wanted to sprint off but I held him back handing him my Bowie knife. Mesquite are made of iron wood I told him so he needed the right tool. In the meantime I searched the legs of my pants and long johns for more hidden thorns. Better safe than sorry.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

I felt utterly ashamed. Woodrow had injured himself and all had been my fault. Hadn't I yelled out in frustration that morning, he wouldn't have dashed through the thorny shrubs to come to my rescue. The least thing I could do for him now was to take care of his injuries.

 

On my way to the bushes he had pointed out to me, my guilty conscience rolled thought the incident over and over. All because I had been jealous of an indian who possibly never had been Woodrow's lover after all. I wondered why else he did not mentioned him and came to the only possible conclusion that this Famous Shoes meant nothing to Woodrow.

This of course wasn't helping with the small matter that I had caused Woodrow those injuries.

 

On my way I hoped that Woodrow was sure about those bushes but when I reached the first I recognised them to be Mesquite. I had heard of them being used in treating wounds and other ailments. So I did as Woodrow had asked me and started to cut away at some of the branches. It was just as he told me. Hard work to get through the wood and I was glad that he had given me his knife.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Woodrow

 

I followed him with my eyes and then suddenly I remembered that he hadn't taken his gun. With great pain I got up and limped over to my horse pulling my rifle out of the holster.

He was half way across when I returned back to the log that functioned as a seat.

 

I sat down but so that I was facing him. The rifle over my thighs. He reached the high bushes and I saw him starting to cut away. All I heard was the buzzing of flies and bees around me. He reached up and I saw his lean shape stretch to reach one of the upper branches. Somehow my heart almost skipped a beat.

 

He had called me Captain or Call for most of the day as a result of my being so sultry. Only when he noticed me being injured he had spilled out my first name. Every time he said my heart had jumped with joy. For split moment I closed my eyes to search inside me  would be if I would push him away and to pain the mere thought caused was harder to bear than the cuttings of Hitch's knife earlier.

I opened my eyes again and flinched. On the horizon there were horses. Indian horses. My brain raced how could I make Hitch aware without drawing the attention of those indians.

  


 

 

 


	13. Getting to know you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hitch's backstory

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 13 (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1459

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

_A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events._

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

I was busy cutting down branches of the Mesquite bushes while at the same time steering clear of the nasty thorns those plants were covered in. I noticed a movement and saw Call hobbling over to his horse to fetch his rifle. That was when it hit home that I was unarmed apart from Call's Bowie knife.

 

I halted my work for a moment and not only watched on as Woodrow limped back to the log which served as his seat but also noticed how he suddenly jumped up again. He raised his hand to his eyes and I followed his gaze spying a band of Comanches heading my direction.

I noticed Woodrow looking to and fro between the indians and myself several times. I knew he was wracking his brain how to warn me with drawing the indians attention.

I was in a much better position covered from view of the red-skins by the Mesquite bushes. So I waited until Woodrow's gaze rested on me again and signalled him that I was aware of the Comanches.

 

I saw him limp back to our horses, making them lying down. He then extinguished our fire by throwing dirt on it. I kept and eye out on the indians but they were oblivious to our activities. The next time Woodrow looked in my direction I motioned him to lay low. Meanwhile I climbed inside the bushes always weary of those thorns. However, I knew that these thorns were my protection as the indians were well aware how poisonous those spikes were.

 

From inside the Mesquite bushes I observed closely as the Comanches passed by. A quick look back at our camp confirmed that Woodrow and the horse had laid down and were out of sight of the passing Comanches.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

I was relieved to see Hitch signalling me that he had seen the Comanche outfit coming his way. He motioned me to lay low and I saw him climbing inside the Mesquite bushes. I only hoped that he bewared not only the indians but also the nasty thorns those bushes were sporting.

I was glad that he wore his chaps and a thick jacket to protect himself at least a little.

 

I myself had to spring to action and with the adrenalin pumping through my veins my injuries were completely forgotten. I rushed to our horses and made sure that they laid and staid down so they were not spotted by those indians.

The next duty was to quench the fire without creating smoke which of course would have been noticed immediately.

Before I myself laid flat I risked another look at Hitch, but he was out of my view by now. So all that was left for me to do was to stay low and wait until the Comanches had left.

 

Lying there all by myself the thoughts were coming back to haunt my mind and I wondered what I would feel if Everett had been discovered and captured by those Comanches. The thought alone made me squint. I had to admit that I had developed feeling for the young Arkansawyer. I was still lying deep in thoughts when a shadow fell upon me. I looked up and saw Everett towering over me with a huge smile on his face. I too was glad to see him and even gladder when I noticed the working gloves on his hand which he now held outstretched to help me up to my feet.

 

“They're gone.” He said and pointed in direction Southeast. “Let's have a look at your legs now. Sit down over there.” I did as told and held out my left leg first for it had been worst. Under my instructions Everett prepared a paste from the gum mixed in some water.

The paste we rubbed into the wounds and all over my legs. I could immediately feel the numbing of the pain. I rolled down my long johns' legs and put my pants back on.

 

Everett looked on ready to spring to my assistance. “How much time have we lost?” He asked as he walked to get our horses back to their feet and checked their saddles. I was buckling up my chaps when Hitch came back with the three horses ready.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

The sudden appearance of the Comanches had delayed us even more and besides I had had no chance to apply the medication onto Woodrow's legs. So I climbed down gathered up my collected stuff and rushed back to our camp as soon as the last indian had vanished on the horizon.

 

When I reached camp Woodrow was still on the ground and the horses too. Of course he had no chance to follow the movement of the indians without giving his position away unlike me who had had them in full view. So I walked over to him and realised that he had his eyes closed. But as soon as my shadow fell on his face he opened them. I extended my hand to help him up.

 

Next on my agenda was to apply the medication on Woodrow's injured legs. But as I was unaccustomed with the remedies provided by the Mesquite bush. So Woodrow had to instruct me what to do. This all done I went for the horses. I was wondering if he needed help getting onto his mare but he managed without my help.

 

So I packed all our stuff onto the pinto before I mounted up myself. The only positive side effect to our delay was the fact that our horses were well rested now.

 

We set off in a faster pace as there was still one days ride ahead of us before we would reach Austin.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

Hitch was getting us ready quickly and we both left speeding up a little as the horses were rested and we still had one days ride before us. I was wondering if I could risk to ride through the night with Hitch being unfamiliar with the terrain.

I also began to wonder how to present Hitch to the governor. So far I knew nothing about his circumstances and he could as well be a runaway killer. To myself I admitted that I was worried what I would learn about him and so had avoided the topic.

 

Riding side by side I finally worked up the courage to ask him. “How came that you were all alone there on the prairie? Where did you came from, Everett?”

The tale that ensued slowly unfolding as haltingly retold by Hitch was something I never had expected.

 

Hitch came of a family of sharecroppers which at first on arrival in Arkansaw Territory had fared quite well until the old planter had died and his son took over. The family then had fallen into poverty and his father's death had caused his mother to take to the bottle whilst offering herself in the local bars. Touring the bars had soon found her a new companion, a drunkard just like herself. She had married the man and Hitch's stepfather had abused him until he could take it no longer and ran away at the age of thirteen.

 

He had run off to Jonesboro and at first had supported himself with doing odd jobs. With the break out of the Civil War in 1861 those job grew sparse and he had tried to enlist with the Confederates. However he had been declined because he could not provide an uniform, boots and weapons. But mainly because he was considered to be too young. This had resulted in his decision to grow his beard to make himself look older.

 

However when in the following year the Northeast of Arkansas was invaded by the Union Army of the Southwest under General Curtis and he was forced recruited into their service.

He was marched to the City of Helena which was captured.

As a member of the 1st Division he was transferred to the Army of Tennessee under Frederick Steele.

 

Hitch disclosed that he had been a participant of the Vicksburg campaign and fought with his section under the admission of General Sherman over all command.

As a soldier of the 17th Missouri Volunteer Infantry Hitch had been one of the nine wounded at the battle of Vicksburg. So he had been left behind until his wounds were fully healed.

 

In December 1862 he got his marching orders to joint the XVI Corps. With this Corps he was submitted to the Army of the Gulf under General Nathaniel Bank in 1864 and ordered to participate in Bank's Red River campaign.

Under Bank's command he had fought in the Battle of Mansfield.

  


 

 

 


	14. Nightmares and other wounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hitch is having a nightmare and in the morning treats Call's wounds only to find that there are more than he had expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 14 (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count:1798

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

_A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events._

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

We had been on our way for a while when Woodrow slowed down and falling slightly back rode side by side with me and the pinto.

I could see that something was nagging him and finally he asked me how I had come to be all by myself out on the prairie. I sensed that he wanted to get to know me better and so instead for just replying to his question I told him about myself.

 

My farmer's background and the abusive childhood with a stepfather who beat the shit out of me and the drunken mother who couldn't care less.

My runaway days of independence until I was forced into the service of the Union Army.

I told him that I had originally intended to join up with the Confederates but they had refused me. Despite the pain the memories caused me I told him about my part in the ongoing war against the Confeds in which I had to partake against my will.

My tale was interrupted several times when we had either to cross a river or a gully.

 

I had expected Woodrow to want to travel through the night as we were only twelve hours from Austin. But when the sun was setting he called for halt and announced that we camp.

I was so astonished that I made a remark. However he shook his head. Claiming he couldn't concentrate on the tricky terrain when his legs hurt.

 

So I lit a fire and Woodrow did not protest. Then with the food and coffee in the making I had another look at Woodrow's legs and truly some of the deeper wounds seemed to be inflamed whilst the small scratches had almost gone.

It was clear that he needed some attention. So I prepared another batch of the Mesquite gum paste to apply to the infected wounds.”You should have a proper doctor take a look at this as soon as we're in Austin.” I said and he grinned but nodded.

 

That night rolled up in the sleeping bag I had the nightmare again. Possibly triggered by my retelling the events of the war. I was just about to panic when two strong arms wrapped around me and a voice calm, soothing and deep penetrated my dream. I woke up in Woodrow's arms.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

I originally had planned to ride through the night to reach Austin by break of dawn but my legs were killing me and so I made the quick decision to change the plan and announced that we would set up camp in the dried out riverbed of the gully we were in.

Due to the fact that we were in the dried out riverbed I had no reason for concerns when Hitch was fixin' to start a fire. 'Twas beans and bread and a nice hot coffee to wash it all down. I'd begun to make it a habit to compliment him when he's wrestlin' pots and pans. So I wiped my beard clean and said “That was mighty tasty. Thank you.”

For some reason beyond my comprehension he giggles like a wee bairn every time I do so.

 

Earlier he checked on those wounds on my legs and applied a good greasin' of that Mesquite paste. It works quite well. Even though the cuts Hitch had to make have become inflamed. But most of the minor scratches are healing or already gone and I'd had worse.

As long as we keep an eye on the deeper cuts I'm all right.

 

The medication as well as it works has one side effect, it makes me drowsy and so I was glad when I could crawl into the soogan.

I woke in the middle of the night from Hitch shouting and fidgeting, waving his arms wildly. It was quite clear that he was having a nightmare obviously dreaming of that last battle he'd had been fighting in. According to his accounts he had been fighting at the Battle of Sabine Crossroads what he called the battle of Mansfield.

 

I wrapped him in my arms and held him to my chest like a child. Tried to soothe him with words and after a short while he woke clearly confused and agitated.

He wanted to apologize that he had disturbed my sleep but I shushed him down, wouldn't want to hear of it I said.

It's not the first time I see which effects a fierce battle can have on a man. Also I had heard of the battle of Sabine Crossroads as the battle ground was close to the Texan border. Some of the Texas Ranger divisions had fought at that battle too. However they had fought on the side of the Confederates and it had been the Union troops that suffered terrible losses that April day.

 

From Hitch's tale I knew that he had been ordered to the east side of the road. They had been hit hard but managed to repulse the Confed's onslaught for a while. However the losses had been great.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

For the rest of the night Woodrow held me in his arms, my head resting on his chest. I managed to fall asleep again. At first it seemed that the sound of his heartbeat would trigger that dream again but he hugged me close and the nightmare vanished.

 

We both woke up early before sunrise. He from the pains and I from troubled thoughts.

Seeing him suffer I rushed to take care of his wounds. Washing them before applying a fresh layer of the paste. I was glad that we soon would arrive in Austin as he seemed to develop some temperature which would lead to a proper wound fever if he did not receive some proper medicine and most of all rest.

 

However I rather had the feeling that he would fall back to the usual treatment of alcohol washings and applying paraffin oil all bandaged up in brown paper which was common amongst soldiers and civilians alike for these kind of wounds. I came to this conclusion especially after he made a remark which proved that he was not at all impressed with the local quacks. Even the ones in Austin. So I urged him to use lint for wrapping and a paste made of honey and grease instead.

 

Not sure if I had convinced him I was however sure that he would started the self-treatment as soon as we would reach Austin. He only hadn't done so far because we neither had paraffin oil nor brown paper at hand. And respectively I had no honey for the treatment I prescribed.

Instead I kept cooking up the Mesquite bark and washed his wounds with it. Followed by the rubbing in of the Mesquite gum paste. The festering wounds I would reopen to drain out the pus and then followed with the treatment as usual which meant washing and salving.

I warned him that this kind of wound treatment would lead to extensive scarring but he only laughed. Later that day I was to learn why he had responded in this fashion.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

It was a short night for both of us. Everett still trembling from his nightmares and myself drenched in cold sweat from the pains in my legs. Seeing me in such agony Hitch hurried to prepare my treatment of hot Mesquite bark poultice to wash out the purulence before applying some more of the gum paste.

 

Some of the badly inflamed and purulent wounds had to be cut open again to drain the matter. Hitch warned me that this might lead to scarring but I only laughed. Scars were the least problem I had to face. In secret I was very worried that the infestation would turn into blood poisoning and I might loose my legs. One of the reasons I was determined not to go to one of those Austin quacks for they were known to be quick with the bone saw.

 

However on closer inspection in daylight even Hitch had to admit that the remedy seemed to show some effects. Of the five deeper wounds where Hitch had to cut out the thorns only two were badly inflamed. Unluckily for me they were one on each leg and especially on the inside of the leg where I would rub them constantly during the ride.

 

However there is nothing to help me feel better than a healthy breakfast and Hitch went out for some addition to the usual tinned beans and stale bread. His search had been lucky and I could see him tracking down some partridges. But he seemed to try and shoot them and that would be wasteful. So I caught up with him and made him stop. Instead I fished for the stones I still carried in my pocket. Hitch signalled that he had spotted four partridges so I grabbed four stones and threw.

I could feel Hitch staring at me as the first of the birds shrieked out. In quick succession followed the three other birds in the first ones fate.

 

Hitch shook his head as he went to fetch the four birds. “I never have seen anybody who is so skilled with throwing rocks. Four throws four kills. That is amazing. How can you do such a thing?”

I grinned and shrugged. “Practice.” I said and returned to our camp.

We plucked one of the birds straight away and poking it on a stick to roast I discovered that it was a hen with an egg still inside her. So I carefully removed the egg and handed it to Hitch to break it into the pan as an unsuspected treat.

 

After that grand breakfast we broke up camp and rode on. However we were dusty and smelly and I did not wanted to arrive in Austin in such a state. So I told Hitch that I was planning to stop at the Colorado river bank for a wash. I knew exactly the place where we could clean ourselves up without being discovered. So I took the lead and we soon reached our bathing place.

 

I immediately stepped from my horse and fetching my saddle bags went down to the river. There I shed all of my clothes even the long johns when I heard Hitch gasped out loud. I had forgotten that he had no knowledge of the state of my back. So I turned and smile. “That's nothing. It's all healed.” I said. But he came closer and brushed his hands over my scarred back. “What?” He was awestruck at the sight.

“Hundred lashes as a courtesy of the Mexican government.” I joked and ran to the water to plunge in head first.

  


 

 

 

 

 


	15. That's who I am

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call tells his backstory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events. 
> 
> As I have not read the books of Mr. McMurtry I am not aware if he has given his character a history. So I invented one for him.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 15 (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1982

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

_A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events. As I have not read the books of Mr. McMurtry I am not aware if he has given his character a history. So I invented one for him._

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

When we reached the river Woodrow rushed towards the water shedding all his clothes and for the first time my gaze fell on the crisscross of scars covering all of his upper back. I gasped at the sight but Woodrow turned and laughed it off.

However I couldn't help but had to touch him, wondering why I hadn't felt anything during the past nights when I had held him in my arms.

But as he had stated those were old scars so old in fact that they had flattened out and only the silvery crisscross pattern on his back gave them away.

The strange thing was that now that I had seen them I suddenly could feel the scars.

 

I wanted him to tell me how he had come by those wounds but he ran off and dove into the river. He surfaced again spluttering and splashing water in my direction. He laughed and looked like a carefree schoolboy. “Come in.” He shouted at me and before diving under again added “But watch out for the snappers.”

 

I began to wonder if that had been the reason for him lounging headlong in. But then I wondered if there really were snapping turtles in the river near these banks, how would he get out? Gingerly I walked down to the water just when he resurfaced and watching me, he began to chuckle. “Hey are you chicken out?” He teased me but then he stopped the joking game. “It's OK here, Hitch. The ground isn't muddy and murky enough for those turtles. Come in it's safe.”

 

I still was a little weary. So I took my time walked slowly in, trying to scan the ground before each step I made. But the riverbed was clean and soon I was swimming out in the river. I had encountered a snapping turtle victim once and I could honestly say it hadn't been a pretty sight. So I told Woodrow, who apologized.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

I made a joke about the snappers but somehow I caught Hitch on the wrong foot. There must have been something buried deeper and I hoped he'd tell me but it took some time. Only after he was swimming next to me he told me about his experience with a snapper victim. I apologized for having pulled his leg and explained that the sandy riverbed all firm was not to the turtles taste, which prefer loose, muddy grounds to bury themselves inside. I truly felt sorry that I had teased him for I could see he was really upset.

It appeared to me that the encounter with that person attacked by a snapper had left it's marks in his memory. He told me that it had been his little half sister which had been attacked and the turtle had bitten her in the face.

 

“I'm sorry, I didn't meant to scare you or trigger that bad memory.” I said and while we were swimming side by side told him the story of Maddie the mad whore who had accompanied me and the rangers in my early days as ranger. She used to catch snappers by the tail and throw them at the clients who were reluctant to pay. The story made him grin and the paleness in his face faded.

“They make good food.” I said, “Maybe we should keep our eyes pecked for some turtles.”

 

We were swimming and fooling around for a bit but the water was cold. So we got back to the river bank, dropping into the grass, letting the sun warm us up.

Still I was determined to get to Austin before dark so I called it time to get us proper washed and leave.

 

Hitch stepped back into the water and I fetching a bar of soap followed after. We soaped each other hair and body and then washed the foam off. Finally we went out shook ourselves dry and went to get our clean spare clothes on. In Hitch's case these were rather late Peewee's spare clothes but they seemed to fit and he was quite happy with them.

Rolling up our dirty clothes, stuffing them into our saddlebags we were ready to mount but Hitch reminded me that our bath had washed away the layer of gum paste on my wounded legs. So he fixed me up and we were on our way to Austin.

 

I had calculated that we were about four hours away from the outskirts of Austin. However I had not considered the constant stream of new arrivals and therefore was astonished when we hit the first line of houses after three hours.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

I finally plunged in and we swam and fooled around a bit. Then we went out to lie in the sun to warm us up again for the water had been quite cold. After a short while Woodrow announced that it was time for us to get going. So we went into the water again sharing a bar of soap and washed ourselves properly body and hair. He helped me with soaping and I did him. When we had washed the soap off and returned to the river bank we went for the clean clothes. I had to admit that I was glad that the late Peewee and I were of the same build. To put some fresh clothes on felt good. So just like Woodrow I stuffed my used clothes into the saddlebag to be cared for at the wash house in Austin.

Before we set off I remembered to put another layer of the Mesquite paste on his two cuts which looked much better despite the rubbing against the saddle.

 

For a while we rode in silence side by side. But it was a comfortable silence and didn't felt awkward at all. It was he who broke it starting to talk. He told me about his time with Gus and the boys. His life in Austin. It felt as if he was preparing me. He spoke about a woman, a whore, Maggie, with who he had shared some time in the past. She had told him that he had fathered a child. But he made it clear that he wasn't so sure of that. “She's a whore. How can she be sure?” He said and I could sense that he rather asked for confirmation. Of course I couldn't give him that.

 

“Gus said you're bred Texan.” I said changing the subject and he shook his head. “No. Not quite.”

Then he began to tell me in his own crisp way about himself.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

As we came closer to Austin I got a bit worried about what he might pick up from the gossip. I thought it best if I would tell himself before he heard anything on the grapevine. I told him about my life in Austin and what kind of rumours, gossip or other stories he might be confronted with. Especially the stories he would hear about me, Maggie and the baby. He listened but made no comments. Instead he asked about my Texan ancestry as pointed out by Gus on our first meeting.

 

Unfortunately I had to crush that pretty picture for I was not born in Texas at all. I saw his eyebrows shooting up in astonishment but he did not say a word.

I couldn't say why but somehow I suddenly felt this urge to tell him about me. I had to grin at the thought for I had not told anybody ever before not even Gus with whom I had shared so many adventures and who I considered to be a good friend. I figured that Gus would be angry and I already heard his ranting about that I hadn't trusted him with my childhood story.

 

“I was born on a ship in Aberdeen harbour in Scotland just hours before she took sail to America.” I began. “My family was waiting for to ship out after they had been chased from their land. They hoped to find a better life over here. At least that is what my guardian always said.” He looked at me confused at the mentioning of a guardian.

“I was four when I lost them.” I had to swallow. “I lost them all.” Strangely even though I couldn't really remember but had all of this information from hearsay it still hurt for I knew it was true.

 

“I was born sometime in June 1820 in Aberdeen to Fraser MacCall and his wife. I can't remember my mother's name and nobody could tell me. She died whilst giving birth and was buried at sea. The only mother I knew was a young woman called Elizabeth. My father must have met her onboard ship and she took care of myself and my seven siblings.”

“Seven.” Hitch gasped and I nodded.

 

“My guardian said that my father, Elizabeth and us children followed Stephen F. Austin's call and moved to Texas. Father set up a farm and built a house. I don't know if I remember or if I was told but it looked a bit like a fortress rather than a normal house.”

Hitch nodded. “Have seen those.” He said.

 

“I was four years old when the Kiowa came and attacked us. I was in the outhouse at that time and a stray arrow got me in the shoulder. I crawled up onto the can so they couldn't see my feet from under the door. I heard the indians yapping and smelled the smoke when they set the house on fire. I heard the screams of my family members as they were slaughtered one by one. The indians had only be after the livestock but due to father's resistance had murdered them all. At least that was what the rangers had said. The burning of the farm house had drawn them. When the frontier-men finally arrived the house was in ashes. The men under the command of Lieutenant Moses Morrison were too late. One of them a man called Samuel Woodrow found me cowering in the john.

 

When they asked me for my name I couldn't remember. One of the rangers said he knew my father. So they asked him. The man tried to remember all of our names. I remember him counting them out on his fingers.”

I had to take a deep breath and Hitch looked at me but remained silent.

“Fraser  Elizabeth Call, the man said.” I could see Hitch wondering. “The Mac got lost somewhere between arriving in America and arriving in Texas.” I explained.

“Then the two eldest girls Bethia and Elspeth. Fraser junior and Gordon. Then the twins Morag and Morna. Morrison noted the names down to put them on the graves. The fella remembered Rory but not my name.”

I looked at Hitch and shrugged.

“My father had named all his children after the alphabet. Scottish names all. People had a hard time to remember them. My name might have started with an S or a T. Who knows! As nobody seemed to be able to Lieutenant Morrison decided that I should be named after my rescuer. So they called me Woodrow Fraser Call.

 

The men buried my family and I was taken under the wing of Samuel Woodrow on the way back. Sam wasn't married and so handed me over to his brother Joshua and his wife Sarah to take care of me.

I do not have good memories of the live on the farm of Joshua Woodrow. Sam soon noticed but left me until I was ten. Then he came for me and I was living with the frontier-men until I was old enough to become one of them.”

 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 


	16. Back in Austin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hitch and Call arrive in Austin only to find that the Ranger boys never showed up there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 16 (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 1605

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

_A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events._

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

Woodrow told me his story on our way to Austin. What I heard was an astonishing but at the same time not unusual account of a settlers family at the frontier. The thing that amazed me was that he never remembered his real name.

“Have you never thought of …” I broke up and shook my head waved my hand to signal him to forget what I've said. The boy Woodrow had nobody to ask, nobody to contact or turn to. He was surrounded by strangers. Well meaning of course in a way but nevertheless strangers.

 

Sarah Woodrow turned out to be a troubled woman blaming the boy for everything that went wrong in her life. Woodrow suffered some abuse on her account. Things only got slightly better when her first child was born. But still she considered him an intruder and a nuisance.

 

“I was on the wrong track there.” I explained to him. “There was nobody for you to turn to for help. All your folks were gone and that's that. But did a name never pop up in your head? Some name that stuck in there or strung a cord?” He shook his head. “At the Woodrow farm they called me Woody. As it was weird to call out their last name for me. Joshua Woodrow was a hard but just man. Sarah was a different story all together. I guess my presence reminded her of the dangers her family was facing out there. When Sam came for me I was glad. At the rangers they stuck with Woodrow or Call depending. At least as long as I was just one of the troopers. Moses Morrison was the one to teach me reading and writing. Just as much as a ranger would need.”

 

His reasoning made some sense. I imagined that it must have been hard for the woman being confronted with him as a constant reminder what could happen to them as well any day.

 

By the time he had finished his tale we had reached the first houses of Austin. From his reaction I saw that he was surprised. He looked at his shadow and then to the sun. He pulled his hat from his head and wiped his face with his wild-rag. I looked at him questioning. “That's new.” Was his only comment but the undertone in his voice revealed that he was far from happy.

 

“Ever thought of leaving Austin?” I asked therefore. “Yep.” was the only reply I got in return and I could see that he struggled getting his mind around the new situation. Somehow he was not moving any further and that was when it hit me. He struggled finding his way through the maze of new streets. This man who went out into the wild and never once even for a moment lost his orientation was almost helpless in the city.

 

“Where is the Ranger's Station?” I asked him but all I got was a look. Then he turned his horse westward and we rode on past the new suburb until we reached the river. Obviously his confusion lifted for suddenly his stance change and he was in control again. We rode along the river bank until we hit the first road familiar to him. Then he turned east again and soon we were in the main street leading up to the governor's building.

 

“Best we report to the governor straight away.” He said but looking at me holding that lead of our indian pony he changed his mind.

 

 

* * *

 

_Woodrow_

 

Shit! This new settlement had me totally off guard. I had no idea how to get to our outlet or to the Governor's house. Totally lost.

It always takes me a while to cope and find my way about in those damn tight spaces.

Hitch must have noticed my confusion asking me where our station was. Damn it, I wished I knew. The problem was that I usually leave finding our way around town to Gus. He knows Austin like the inside of his pocket. Only today Gus was not there and so I had no one to follow. I turned my horse's nose towards the river and Hitched followed after.

I had to get myself together for Hitch couldn't help me at all as he never had been to Austin before.

 

But as soon as we reached the river I was fairly confident again and soon we were en-route to the Governor's house. I suggested to Hitch that we should report immediately especially as I had some disturbing news. But seeing Hitch tired and that damn indian pony on the lead I changed my mind. Also I remembered that we needed Gus as well.

“No good, Hitch. No good. We need Gus and you should get rid of that damn pack horse as well.”

 

I led the way and after a few turns towards south and then west again we could see the river in front of us. I rode down until we almost were at the river bank again and then turned left. I stopped. I wasn't too sure if my mouth fell open. Hitch must have seen my eyebrow rising as I was biting down a curse. He certainly guessed that here too new buildings had been spread out. Just from experience he must have been aware of as smithy, livery stable and our rangers station were normally built on the outskirts of towns. But now the City of Austin had swallowed us.

 

“More changes?” He said and I growled which made him chuckle. “Don't like it at all, do you?” He said.

I pulled into the station's yard with the corral and stable block and the quarters neatly arranged in a quadrangle and dismounted. Hitch held his hand out to take my horse's reins to take her and the two others into the paddock.

 

 

* * *

 

_Everett_

 

Woodrow clearly wasn't happy when he found that even their place had been surrounded by new built houses. He stood there and I could feel the curse curling up in him.

We rode into the yard and the door to the station opened just as Woodrow had stepped out of his saddle and thrown my his horse's lead.

 

He met with another man, older, possibly a former ranger now retired. I had turned around in my saddle the chestnut walking slowly towards the stables, watching them greet each other and exchanging a few words. I could see Woodrow's face turn crimson with anger and I turned the horses around and just rode back to where the two were standing.

 

I rode up to Woodrow hearing him say “Thanks, Ikey.” He then turned around and took his horse's rein out of my hand to mount up again. Without a word he rode out back to the street and turned towards the river. I followed at his heel wondering what had happened.

“Where are we going?” I dared to ask after a short while.

 

“I know exactly where this bugger is hiding.” He growled and it hit me that Gus and the boys hadn't returned but stopped somewhere outside town.

As soon as we reached the river Woodrow crossed over to the opposite bank. There he turned to the South again and we followed the Colorado down stream for quite a while.

 

In a little grove by the river I saw the guys camping. Actually spotted their fire first and heard them talking, joking and laughing. Stove Jones was the first to spot us and his call out alarmed and quieten the rest of the men. It also had Gus jump to his feet rushing to greet us.

 

Gus walked up to Woodrow as we rode into their camp. Woodrow was addressing Gus already while mounting down his horse. The two walked out of the camp and out of earshot. All I could see was Woodrow frowning at Gus and Gus's flushed face.

 

 

* * *

 

_Woodrow_

 

I was furious when Ikey told me that Gus and the boys hadn't returned to Austin at all and that Hitch and I were the first ones to be back.

 

The anger was building even more as Hitch and I rode out again. Luckily I knew exactly where to look. There was that little grove by the Colorado where Gus and his Miss Clara used to picnic. I also had fetched him several times from there when he had been on one of his boozing sprees.

 

So I pressed on and indeed could hear them brawling already from afar. Stove was the first one to notice our arrival and soon all were on their feet closing in on us.

Gus came towards me and I hissed at him. “Captain McCrae, a word.” whilst I climbed out of the saddle. We walked out of earshot and I started to growl at him how disappointed I was that he had not followed my instructions to lead the boys home. “Didn't I told you to get the boys home, Gus? Is this home? I ask you Gus!” Gus was all red in the face and I could smell booze on his breath. He opened and closed his mouth several times like a fish out of water but no words came out. Finally he managed one of his usual “Damn it, Woodrow.” But I only waved my hand in dismissal. “Round them up, Captain McCrae. We're marching out.” I said turning my back on him and left him standing.

  


 

 

 


	17. Driving them home and a new assignment.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call catches up with his boys and chases them back to Austin.   
> The governor receives his report and a new job awaits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events.

****[](http://pics.livejournal.com/j_flattermann/pic/002dgxpa/)  
  
Title: A new Recruit – Part 17 (crossposted tomeduseld, gondorian_men and sons_of_gondor)

 

Pairing: Woodrow F. Call/Everett Hitch

Fandom: Comanche Moon/Appaloosa

Genre: Slash

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: 2246

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. The character of Woodrow F. Call belongs to the Larry McMurtry estate. The character of Everett Hitch belongs to Robert B. Parker estate. All other characters mentioned belong to either of the above mentioned. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Everett Hitch is looking for a job and finds an unexpected one.

_A/N: Some of the mentioned events related to Larry McMurtry's book/movie “Dead Man's Walk”. I do not claim authenticity in regards of historic events._

 

 

 

  


_Everett_

 

I knew that Woodrow would wanted for us to leave as soon as possible. Therefore I staid on my horse. The ranger boys came around and teased me a little for sitting on 'a high horse'. And we all had a good laugh. But I was actually quite worried. Woodrow was in need of changing the bandages on his legs and soon.

 

One of the boys shouted that I'd looked like Robert E. Lee sitting like that on the horse. The others immediately made fun of him. “How would you know!” I heard them shout him down.

 

Gus came up from behind, saying “He knows all right. He's seen him.” That shut all the other up and had me immediately interested. Just then I remembered what that man's name was. “Pea Eye, is that true? How comes that you know Robert E.?” I asked but then I was interrupted by Gus shouting commands to break up camp and mount up.

 

I felt something touch my right leg and I hurled around only to see Woodrow leaning at me pale as a freshly limed wall. I bent down and whispered only for him to hear. “Do you need help mounting up?” He shook his head and whispered back. “Only need a moment. Am a wee bit dizzy just now.” Then he looked up at my face and smile.

“We need to change your bandages soon, Woodrow.” I replied softly and he nodded. Then very slowly walked on to his own mount.

 

The ranger boys rolled up their sleeping bags and saddled up. On Gus's command they all mounted up and we rode out in two by two's. Woodrow had turned his horse and Gus caught up with him and the two rode side by side. I turned my chestnut as well and fell in behind them with Pea Eye Parker riding by my side.

I heard Gus arguing with Woodrow who replied in monosyllables. But I concentrated on Pea Eye who told me that he had served under Robert E. Lee at Camp Cooper before he joint up with the rangers.

 

Keeping an eye on Woodrow every now and again we were riding back to Austin to that Ranger's station.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

Walking back to the camp my legs began to pestering me again. I was drenched in cold sweat and feeling dizzy when I reached Hitch still sitting on his horse. He noticed and asked me if I needed help. I told him “No” and that I was just a little dizzy. He reminded me that I was more than overdue for changing those bandages on my legs. Bless him. He is a kind hearted fellow.

 

Gus had the boys mounted up and we rode out. Gus at my side complaining all the time as usual. But I was in no mood to give in to his idle palaver.

Instead I had my ears pricked to catch what Hitch and Pea Eye were discussing. To my astonishment Hitch was asking about Pea Eye's time at Camp Cooper under Lee.

However I had not much time listening in as Gus was bending my ears again. “Damn it, Woodrow. You know how much I hate to report to the guv'ner. And you are expecting me to ride in with the boys all by myself. Darn you, Woodrow! He would have asked for my report straight away.” He wailed. “What should I have told him, Woodrow? You tell me?” He looked at me accusingly but I remained silent.

 

“He surely would have asked me where you were. What should I have to reply to that? That I lost you somewhere on the range? There out on the plateau, left you behind just with Hitch and one horse? That I'm not sure whether you live or not?”

 

“You could have told him what I told you. That Hitch and I were following after.” I said and he shrugged.

“What should I have told to Maggie?” He said, “She'd surely have asked.” He whined on.

“Now, you leave that matter alone.” I said sternly with a warning undertone.

But he then picked up on Hitch claiming “How could I possibly have explained to the guv'ner Hitch's presence with having no man to show for?”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

 

We rode in as one company and Ikey Ripple greeted us. Lending us a hand with the horses.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Everett_

 

I jumped down and the old man Ikey took my horse's reins. I rushed over to Woodrow and just in time to help him remain on his feet and get into the house. I sat him down on the next bed by the door.

Gus must have seen me for he rushed in after us. At that time I had Woodrow out of his pants. Gus stared at me but gasped when I rolled up Woodrow's long johns to reveal the bandages on both legs.

 

That was when Gus jumped into action. Bringing a bottle of iodine, one of whisky and another with paraffin oil. The next thing I found being placed next to me was some folded up brown paper and strings to tie.

“Darn you, Woodrow!” Gust finally yelled. “Not saying one word all the way. Not one word that you are injured. Letting me brawl on about all the way and not one word.”

He walked over to the cup board and fetched three glasses, filling them with whisky. He handed the first to Woodrow and the second to me and I nodded my thanks to Gus but concentrated on treating the wounds on Woodrow's legs first.

 

What stroke me odd was that Gus not once suggested a doctor to be called. But then again he and Woodrow knew each other for some time.

As soon as the fresh bandages were applied I urged Woodrow to lie down and rest. The boys had entered one after the other and the bunks filled with for some strange reason exhausted looking men.

The old ranger Ikey came to me and pointing at his bunk offered me to use it. “What about you?” I asked and he just smiled and said that he would do the night watch.

I thanked him and as his bunk was close to Woodrow's decided to keep one eye on him if the wounds were becoming troublesome again.

 

But despite being tired. I was throwing myself from left to right not able to rest. Worried that my nightmare would recur and I might wake the rangers with my screams. So I got up walked out into the crisp night air. As the land fell down towards the river, one could overlook the landscape bathed in the light of the moon from the veranda of the Ranger's station. Ikey Ripple moved over nodding friendly as soon as he recognised me. “Can't sleep?” He asked. “Too stuffy.” I replied and he chuckled in reply.

 

“Know something about that.” He said friendly, “You get that way when you've been out there for while. A house get's too small.” I nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. He handed me a cigarette, took one himself and lit both. Again I nodded my thank you. He replied with a nod in return and walked away again.

 

I smoked in silence when the door behind me opened. “Didn't know you were in tobacco.” Woodrow's voice addressed me. “Only ev'ry now and again.” I said turning smiling at him. “How's your legs?” I asked and he simply shrugged.

“Quite stuffy in there. “ He said changing the subject. Resting his hands on the balustrade next to mine. We stood side by side. He looked out over the Colorado and I finished my smoke.

 

As soon as I flicked the fag end out into the yard, he turned to me again. “Best get some sleep.” He said. “Have to be off to the governor early tomorrow.”

I walked back in behind him.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Woodrow_

 

Early next morning I was up before all the rest. Hitch stirred shortly after. Had to wake Gus. Nothing new there. Ikey came in shared a cup of coffee with us before going out to get our horses.

It had been a short ride over to the governor's house. Bingham his black butler greeted us. Asked us to wait and went to announce us to the governor. Soon the door to Governor Pease's office opened and Gus, Hitch and I walked in.

 

We stood before his desk when Gus poked my ribs and said with a hushed voice “Need to tell him about Peewee.” And a minute later he whispered “Remember?! We had that Lee Hitch with us for a while. Don't know what became of him. But we could tell the guv'ner that this Hitch is Lee Hitch returned. Would safe us the trouble of explaining, wouldn't it?”

 

I almost exploded, but contained myself and hissed back. “That would be lying, Augustus McCrae.” He shrugged but shut up.

 

The governor raised his head and ordered us to report on our last mission. As requested I started off telling of the encounter we had had with a band of Kiowa, chasing them over the New Mexican border. Told him about Peewee falling off his horse breaking his neck when stirring up a rattler.

Then told how we had found Hitch out on the range all by himself and that we decided to take him to Austin. I finished with the fall into the river gorge losing my horse in the process. Finished off with the encounter with the indians on the range near San Saba when we retrieved the horse Gus had left for me and again in Burnet county.

Then it was Gus's turn to give his account from when we had separated. He cleverly omitted that I had ordered him to ride straight back to Austin.

 

Reporting finished the governor questioned Hitch who repeated his account. Telling the governor that after the battle of Mansfield after he had regained his consciousness he had found himself abandoned with the dead. He concluded that his comrades must have thought him dead.

Hitch informed the governor that he had tried to return to his Corp but couldn't find them and then had gone lost on the range until he had stumbled across us.

 

The governor asked him if he knew how long he had been lying there with the dead. But Hitch only shook his head. “I can't remember much of the fight and of what came after. Only that I woke and there were all these bodies, men, mules and horses. And the crows were picking at some.” He shivered recalling the picture from his memory. The governor wanted to know if he had any proof of this and Hitch leaned forward revealing a nasty gash on his scalp. The governor gulped down and looking at Gus and me said, “Looks like a sabre cut to me.” He then sighed deeply.

“I will make some careful inquiries.” Pease said, “We will see what comes out of it. In the meantime you stay with the rangers Mr. Hitch. I shall let you know if I have word.”

 

Hitch nodded and then the governor dismissed us. So Gus eager to leave rushed out of the office but I staid behind holding Hitch back by his sleeve, telling the governor that I have troublesome news.

 

So Governor Pease offered us to sit down again and just as Gus turned to look out for us, Hitch and me, the governor closed the office door. But I was sure Gus saw us still sitting there. I could hear Bingham shoving Gus out and I am sure that later I will not hear the end of this. But back to business.

 

I informed the governor what Famous Shoes had told me. “Gov'nor, our indian scout said he ran into a Colonel Christopher Carson who was on his way from Fort Bascom to Cimarron recruiting scouts. Famous Shoes reported to me that the Colonel is planning an exemplary punishment excursion against the Kiowa and the Comanche. They want to punish them for hitting on the wagon trains on the Santa Fé Trail. Our scout said that it should be expected that they will cross over into the Panhandle.”

 

Strangely the governor didn't seemed to be surprised. Instead he produced a dispatch.

“I've got a note from General James H. Carlton.” He said waving the piece of paper in his hand. “We need someone there with Colonel Carson to represent the State of Texas, Captain Call.”

I swallowed, for this sounded like trouble.

“I can't spare the rangers.” The governor continued, “Their numbers have diminished substantially since the beginning of that darn war. No, and I can't send both Captains. One has to stay to lead the rangers.” The governor sighed again.

 

“Woodrow, you know Gus is married. You ain't.”

I nodded, no need to point out the obvious.

“I'll get everything together for the expedition.” I said and looking at Hitch added. “Are you coming with me?”

Everett looked from me to the governor and back. As the governor nodded his agreement Hitch replied. “Sure.”

 

  


 

**End of this chapter.**


End file.
